Good evening at 7 30 so welcome to the Monday April 28th meeting of the Falls Church City Council. I wanted to call this meeting to order. Madam Clerk can we start with roll call please? Yes. Ms. Conley? Here. Ms. Downs? Here. Ms. Flynn? Here. Ms. Chancisco? Here. Mr. Snyder? Here. Ms. Andre Hill? Here. And Mayor Hardy. Here. Thank you, Council. Okay let'sll? Here. And Mayor Hardy. Here. Thank you, Council. Okay, let's start with the pledge of legions. I could ask you all to join us, please. Thank you. Thank you all. May I have a motion to adopt tonight's meeting agenda please. I move to adopt tonight's meeting agenda. You have second. Second. All in favor. Hi. Hi. May knows. Meeting agenda is adopted. Our proclamation O'Rama is continuing. May is going to be busy month and so we've got six proclamations. We welcome everyone. The audience for joining us tonight for the special meeting. First up is a proclamation declaring May 2nd, 2025 as Janet Haynes Day in the city of Falls Church. And vice mayor Ashantz Hiscott will do the honors. Thank you. Whereas Janet Haynes is celebrating the occasion of her 100th birthday. And whereas Janet Haynes served as a school crossing guard with the City of Falls Church Police Department from 1967 to 2019. And whereas for 52 years Janet Haynes safely escorted three generations of St. James Catholic school students under her tutelage with an extra smile and wave to thousands of motorists and pedestrians. And whereas Janet Haynes has received numerous accolades for her service to this community, among them being a grand marshal for the 2013 false church memorial day parade. Now therefore I, Ledy Hardy, Mayo the City of False Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim Friday, May 2, 2025 as Janet Haynes-Day. And given that we had such a full house, I'd ask Janet in the video, if we all gather to sing Happy Birthday to Janet for this big milestone. So, all join me. I'm going to turn off my mic. Happy birthday, dear Sam. Happy birthday. So Janet and family, if we can invite you up to receive the proclamation, I'm sure we all have some words and comments and want it to wish you a happy birthday. So you feel all alone when it come up? It looks like she has a much more chicken thing to say. Janet, would you like to say anything as well before you come up? No. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. I think she's coming. I'm going to go to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. 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I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to the next station. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get 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 get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a We wish you all the best, Janet, as a family who lives on South Spring Street where you We were on post at Route 7 and spring for so many years. Thank you for the years of service and safe crossings you provided families. Our second proclamation is declaring April 30th, 2025 as a data honor the legacy of Vietnamese Americans on the 50th anniversary of the fallacy gone and islly we'll do the honors. Thank you, Mayor Hardy. Whereas this month marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. And whereas the fall of Saigon was a pivotal event that marked the end of the Republic of South Vietnam and caused millions of Vietnamese to flee their homeland in search of freedom in America and other parts of the world. And whereas over 70,000 Vietnamese refugees settled in Northern Virginia, carrying with them their talent, courage and resilience to build a new life in America. And whereas among the first Vietnamese refugees were business leaders who worked to create a thriving community by opening grocery stores, restaurants, markets, and professional businesses to meet the daily needs of the Vietnamese people at the Eden Center in Falls Church. And whereas from those difficult early days, Eden Center steadily grew, becoming not only a bustling commercial hub, but also a vibrant cultural home for the Vietnamese community in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, preserving cherished traditions with its rich culinary flavors, vibrant cultural festivals and familiar atmosphere. And whereas the older generations left their homelands sacrificing everything in pursuit of freedom, rebuilding their lives in a second homeland with nothing but their bare hands and hearts, ever tied to Vietnam. And these stories pass down through the years and the traditions carefully preserved have become a sacred bridge. Helping future generations cherish the values of patriotism, resilience, and the indomitable spirit of the Vietnamese people. Whereas the false church area is a proud home to the Vietnamese community and joins them in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and celebrates their resilience, bravery and dedication to preserving their history and culture. Now therefore I, Ledy Hardy, mayor the City of Fallsturch, Virginia, do hereby proclaim April 30th, 2025 as a day to honor the legacy of Vietnamese Americans on the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. In the city of Falls Church, and urge all residents to respect and honor our diverse community and celebrate and build a culture of awareness and acceptance. Congratulations. Thank you. Looks like we have great audience here tonight. Applause. So we'd welcome you up to speak if you'd like or come up and receive a proclamation. Thank you for joining us. Hello, good evening everyone. My name is Long Huang. On behalf of the committee, the Vietnamese American community of the DMV, I mean Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, we hereby to say very thank you very much for your approval to recognize the 50, the Black, April, Memorial, Command, Region. Since April 30, we are out of the world, Vietnamese are out of the world together to remember a million million people died during the Vietnam War. And also remember a million people, they escape from Vietnam because of communist and a thousand, thousand Vietnamese people die on the ocean. And we look for the freedom and democracy. And we again, thank you very much for your hard work. Good evening everyone. My name is Lafa Haban, executive assistant of Vigla, Vietnam and Vice president of the Vietnamese American community of Washington, Maryland and Virginia. We are now to be here today for the legacy of Vietnamese Americans on the 50th anniversary of the 4-Up Sai Gang. Lady andchantement. The fall of River Black Up South Vietnam, that caused the Vietnamese to shut for freedom. In many countries of the world, we are so lucky to have four children, Virginia. Welcome us with open arms. We would like to thank everyone that helped us from the first day of this school to educate us on how to do the new way of life in the American. And we are grateful to your continued support for 50 years. Thank you from the bottom of our thanks. Good evening, esteemed council members of the City of Fosterish. Good evening, everyone. My name is Do nyong wien. And I am simply a member of the Vietnamese American community in Northern Virginia. Ladies and gentlemen, 50 years ago, the lives of millions of South Vietnamese were turned upside down on April 30, 1975, by a historic event, the fraud of Saigon. Many lost their lives defending freedom. Many left behind all they knew and loved and headed towards the future full of unknowns in search of freedom. The Exodus continues for another couple of decades, primarily by boat. The world came to know of a new term, boat people. My family and I became boat people in 1980. Like the majority of other Vietnamese refugees, we arrived in the United States with very little in terms of possessions as well as the command of the English language. I can write a whole book on how we butcher the English language and on how things were so lost in translation that it could go and it did go very wrong. The US had opened its arms and provided us with a safe harbor and opportunities to rebuild our lives from the ground up. Through trials and tribulations we have thrived. In a short period of 50 years we have integrated into the American culture and make contributions in all aspects of the American society. We have made this country our home. And so today, we are proud to call ourselves Vietnamese Americans. But one cannot forget about history, despite how painful it is. And Vietnamese in exile over the world are preparing for the commemoration the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, also known as Black April. Where would we all be today if we had not had the support from the US in general, and from the commonwealth of Virginia in particular? Therefore, today, ladies and gentlemen, we are deeply honored and grateful for the proclamation declaring April 30th, 2025 as the day to honor the legacy of Vietnamese Americans on the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon from the city of of false church. It is a symbol of your continuous support with the recent honorary naming of the Saigon Boulevard of the section of the Worsen Boulevard in front of Eden Center and the upcoming Vietnamese Heritage Day on June 7, 2025. So please accept our deepest gratitude. Thank you. I see my mind very lends your pen, Gini. Oh, that looks like a good picture. That's right. That looks like a good picture. That's right. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. That looks like a good picture. Oh, that amazing, uncrew it. No? You're right. I'm in separate. Yeah. You're right. I'm in separate. Yeah. I'm in separate. Yeah. I'm in separate. Yeah. I'm in separate. Yeah. I'm in separate. I'm in separate. I'm in separate. I'm in separate. I'm in separate. I'm sorry. Okay. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to get some water. I'm going to have a little time. Thank you all. I guess speaking for myself as a first generation immigrant, it's always remember, it's good to remember that hardships like the fall of Saigon usually comes new beginnings and strong vibrant communities grow from that hardship. And so I'm grateful that the Eans Center can be a great home for the American community. And I hope that spirit continues to inspire hope and action for generations to come. So thank you for being part of Fallsearch. Our third proclamation tonight is recognizing May 2025 as National Bike Month and June 3rd, 2025 as a world cycling day in the City of Fallsearch. And Ms. Underhill will do the honors. We're as May is recognized nationally as bike month established in 1956 to promote public awareness of the benefits of bicycling and to advocate for cyclist safety. And whereas June 3rd is celebrated globally as world cycling day, highlighting the importance of cycling as a sustainable, healthy, and inclusive mode of transportation and recreation. And whereas the City of Falls Church has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to enhancing multimodal transportation infrastructure and promoting cycling within the community through numerous initiatives including dedicated bike lanes on Hillwood Avenue, North Roosevelt Boulevard, South Maple Avenue, West Falls Station Boulevard, Wall Street, improving and safety and connectivity for people using bicycles. Washington and Old Dominion do all trails featuring separate paths for cyclists and pedestrians and new road crossings improving safety and accessibility for all road users. Kipe Capital Bike Share providing convenient access to shared bicycles, encouraging cycling as a viable and environmentally friendly transportation option. Promotion of bicycle education, starting in the past year with first grade bicycle class in the school, and a bike bus to school on Fridays and stilling safe cycling habits in young residents. Adoption of the 2025 bicycle master plan reflecting the city's ongoing dedication to creating safe, connected, and accessible bicycling network for all ages and abilities. And whereas bicycling celebrated in the community through recurring events that promote fun, safety, and accessibility for writers of all ages, including bike to work day and bike to school days, occurring May 16th and May 6th, respectively this year. Pop up traffic gardens to teach young children bicycling skills in a protected environment. The Halloween family bike ride where families dress and costume and ride throughout the city. The holiday lights ride showcasing festive homes while encouraging residents to gather in the spirit of the season. The WNOD trail clean ups where community members come together to maintain the city's most significant shared-use trail and local bike shop group rides, fostering camaraderie and a strong cycling community. Whereas these accomplishments and events have led to a growing bicycle culture in false church, contributing to a doubling of the bicycle mode share for work trips from 2010 to 2021, establishment of bike false church in 2021 as a local bicycling advocacy group, and setting records for capital bike share use in 2024. And whereas bicycling offers numerous benefits, including improved physical and mental health, reduced traffic congestion, reduced parking demand, improved air quality, stronger local business, more community connections, and an enhanced quality of life for residents of all ages. Now therefore, I, Ledy Hardy, Mayor of the City of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby recognize May 2025 as National Bike Month in June 3rd, 2025 as World Cycling Day in the City of Falls Church. Encourage all residents to celebrate these observances by participating in bike activities, supporting multimodal infrastructure, and continuing to build towards a bicycle-friendly community award. That looks like we've got bike-false church as well as wallet here. So we'd invite you to come up and speak and receive the proclamation, help us celebrate. I just want to say, quickly, thank you to everyone here who came and heard the proclamation and thank you for doing it this year. It's a funny thing trying to advocate because it's one time to be able to push you all to do more and go faster and do better, but also recognize all the great things that, you know, that council has pushed for and staff has done and the engineering team has put together. So I appreciate today as a way to celebrate all those things. And hopefully, Mike Munt has a great chance for everyone to get out there and get the rusty bike out of your closet and go for a ride somewhere. And if it doesn't feel safe to do that, let these guys know that we can fix that. Thank you. And yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Olson would you like to come up along with to help receive it? And I will say hopefully it can be a both and we can sell. Mr. Olson would you like to come up along with to help receive it? And I will say hopefully it can be a both and we can celebrate everything we're doing and you can hold us accountable to do better. You guys work the new bike shelter? Oh, thank you. That's our new set. So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think we have a few comments. Ms. Gondley? I have one comment that I should have said after the last previous proclamation to the members of the Vietnamese community who are here. And that is I really want to thank you for what you have brought to false church because false church is a better place because you are here. You have brought your traditions, you have brought your families, your culture, and you have just made our city and this whole larger community a better place. So I wanna thank you. We're recognizing you for your resilience and your courage, but what you've brought to this community and this country is immeasurable. So thank you. You're here. So fourth up, we have a proclamation declaring May 4th to 10th as Public Service Recognition Week in the City of Falls Church. And Mr. Cider will read that one. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. And this is another example of the contributions of Vietnamese Americans, not only in business and the arts, as was mentioned before, but also in public service. And tonight we celebrate all of our public servants and especially note the contribution of Vietnamese Americans in so many different fields of public service here in the city of Falls Church in the country and around the world. So this is a proclamation declaring May 4 through 10, 2025, public service recognition week in the City of Falls Church. Whereas public servants work at the federal state, county, and city levels to provide localities across the United States with the essential services they need to keep the nation moving forward. And whereas the work of public servants encompasses a wide variety of responsibilities, including promoting and maintaining public safety, educating our children, hosting community events, repairing and maintaining our street sewer systems and public utilities, caring for vulnerable populations, promoting fairness and inclusion, protecting our natural environment, engaging with the public, and providing responsive customer service, all of which come together to form a well-functioning, efficient, and effective system that meets the needs of the community. And whereas public servants turn our community dreams into a reality, turning proposals and legislation into tangible outcomes through the policies policies, programs and projects that they organize and execute, and whereas public servants are on the front line of emergencies working around the clock to ensure the safety of the community and to facilitate its ability to function during times of difficulty, and whereas city and school employees always go the extra mile to meet the needs of the false church community. Now therefore I, Ledy Hardy, mayor of the City of False Church Virginia, do hereby proclaim the week of May 4th to 10th, 2025 as public service recognition week. And thank all public servants for contributing to make the City of False Church such a great place to live, work, learn, and play, and ask the public to join me in recognizing and celebrating the cities and schools dedicated employees. If I could invite everybody who is a public servant, whether it's federal state city levels, we'd invite you to come up and help receive this together. All right, but why you have to make great friends? What's that? You have to make very kind of get in there. Yeah. She won't. She won't. She's a chief of sort. Yes. She was so many. She was so many. Yeah. That would be fun. Yeah. Yeah something. No, I don't know. I don't know. You have to come in. You have to be part of it. Let's see. A group. A group. Let's Miss Flynn will do the honors. Whereas the City of Falls Church is committed to recognizing that the safety and reliability of homes, buildings, and infrastructure are essential to our growth and resilience both in everyday life and during times of disaster. And whereas confidence in the resilience of the buildings is achieved through the devotion of vigilant guardians are dedicated members of the Virginia Building Code Association, an international code council, nonprofit organizations that bring together local, state, territorial, tribal and federal officials who are experts in the built environment, and we are also very proud of the ability to build and build and build and build National Code Council, nonprofit organizations that bring together local state territorial tribal and federal officials who are experts in the built environment. and International Code Council, nonprofit organizations that bring together local, state, territorial, tribal, and federal officials who are experts in the built environment to create and implement the highest quality codes to protect us in the buildings where we live, learn, work, and play. And whereas modern building codes include safeguards to protect the public from hazards such as hurricanes, snowstorms, tornadoes, wildland fires, floods, and earthquakes. And whereas building safety months is sponsored by the International Code Council to remind the public about the critical role of the largely unknown protectors of public safety are local officials who assure safe, sustainable and affordable buildings that are essential to the prosperity of the community. And whereas gay men, the theme for building safety months 2025 encourages all to get involved and raise awareness about building safety on a personal, local, and global scale. And whereas each year in observance of building safety months, people all over the world are asked to consider the commitment to improve building safety, resilience, and economic investment at home and in the community and to acknowledge the essential service provided to all of us by local and state building departments, fire prevention bureaus, and federal agencies, in protecting lives and property. Now there for I, Ledy Hardy, Mayor of the City Falls, Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim May 2025 as building safety month in the city of Falls Church and call this observance to the attention of all. We certainly have been doing a lot of building in Falls Church. And so these are definitely our unsung heroes and all that they've done to make all these great buildings and businesses come to life and be open for business. So thank you. If I could just join Mayor and with the mayor and council on thanking our public are building safety staff they've just been doing heroic work over the past four years in particular. These are very complex buildings that are going up in the city and they do tremendous work to make sure that they will serve all the future residents, shoppers, professionals who live, work and play in those buildings well for many decades to come. Thank you all. Is there anyone here to receive it or we'll save it for John Russell and team? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Last but not least is a proclamation declaring May 4th to 10th, 2025 as professional municipal clerks week in the city of Falls Church, and Ms. Downs will do that honor. Thank you. Whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk is a time honored and vital part of local government that exists throughout the world. And whereas the municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants, and whereas the municipal clerk provides the professional link between the community, local governing bodies, and agencies of government at all levels. And whereas municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality rendering equal service to all. And whereas the municipal clerk serves as the Information Center on functions of the local government government and is the conduit for the public to reach their locally elected representatives. And whereas professional municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the affairs of their offices through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and the annual meetings of their regional, state, provincial, and international professional organizations. And whereas the municipal clerks serving the City of Falls Church meet the highest standards for fostering transparency and democracy in our community by implementing and maintaining live streamed and recorded public meetings, processing freedom of information act requests for public records daily, maintaining the public records of the city and training staff in the proper care of those records, reviewing legislation and staff reports to the city council to ensure accuracy and clarity, managing the membership of the positions on 34 city and regional boards and commissions, providing support and training to the members and staff of boards and commissions, and responding daily to resident requests, questions and comments in a manner that values the relationships that are built through caring and empathetic interactions. And whereas it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of the professional municipal clerk. Now therefore I let E Hardy mayor the city of fallsturch, Virginia. Do you hear by recognize the week of May 4th through 10th 2025 as professional municipal clerks week in the city of fallsturch and further extend our appreciation to our professional municipal clerks deputy city clerk Veronica Prince and city clerks less Heath, and all professional municipal clerks for the vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent. Thank you for making all of this possible. Yay! You're in a population? Do we make your typing your own population? Thank you for writing. Bring that up. Praise it. That didn't sound right. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all. Thank you all. What a lovely mix of proclamations and recognitions. Mayor Hardy, if I may. Yes. I know I'm speaking for all of my colleagues. When I just say if everyone would know it to the left, these two women really make us look great up here. They do all of the non-glamorous work behind the scenes and really make sure that we can do our jobs effectively. So thank you both on behalf of the council for all you two. Thank you. Thank you. Well said. OK, moving on to the agenda. Let's move on. Do we have any people in the audience doing oaths of office tonight? We don't. Okay. Well, I think we're ready to item number eight, which is receipt of public comment. Can we start with summary of written comments, please? We can. We can. These are the summary of written comments received since your last regular meeting until noon time today. And anything we received after noon, the city council will receive by email and they will be summarized at the next regular meeting. So regarding the budget, Barry and Diane Demayo of 502 West Broad Street asked that a comprehensive study of storm water systems be funded. Marsha Hertzberg wrote in support of reducing taxes in order to equally share any financial burden among taxpayer schools in general government. Brian Jackson and and to and two of 913 Lincoln Avenue requested that the greening of Lincoln Avenue project be prioritized in the CIP. Specifically about the budget in solid waste, Marricade Hughes of 607 Noal Wood Drive, or just... have a new project be prioritized in the CIP. Specifically about the budget in solid waste, Marricade Hughes of 607 Noalwood Drive, Urge City Council, and oh, actually, this is budget in schools, not solid waste, sorry, specifically about budget in schools. Marricade Hughes of 607 Noalwood Drive, Urge City Council, and the school board to find a middle ground that would ease tax burden and maintain strong funding for schools. The following requested that the school budget request be fully funded. Emily Alsup, Elizabeth Ballard, Megan Bartholomew, Meredith Bork, 216 West Jefferson Street, and Brady, 402 West Rose, Mary Lane, Sarah Brands, Christine Lee Buckles of 215 West Cameron Road, Jeff Buck, Caroline Karai, Robert Kavanaugh, 226 Midville Street, the FCCPS Coral Boosters, Beth Neal, Kara Brockyale, Kimberly Nevit, Paul Bowson, James Tyson, Kelly Joe Barri, and Barlara Valenzuela. Cassandra Cloud, 297 Gundry Dry, Lisa Fair, 601, O'Kaven Dry, Diane Feely, 209 Midville Street, Meredith Grasso, Page Griner, 322 Grove Avenue, Liz Jackson, 200 Nolan Street, Valerie Kelly, Courtney Kemp's, 1308 Tracy Place, Meredith Krizal, 105 Tolgate Way, Megan Kuhman, 443 Hampton Court, Alexandra Musto, Michael Racine, 120 Whittier Circle, Kirby Riling, 1308 Tracey Place, Amanda Ronco, FCCPS teacher,a Salmuragi, Jennifer Sopp, Anna Scholl, Christian Shapiro, Melissa Stein, Darian and Annie Fall of 114 with West Green Wable of Art and Walker Hardy. Let's see, and we did have some solid budget and solid waste comments. The following wrote in support of a solid waste collection fee, Barry and Diane de Mayo, 502 West Broad Street, John and Margaret Finorelli, 502 West Broad Street, Austin and Julie Hong Fu, 502 West Broad Street, Cyril and Natalia Lepetcha, 502 West Broad Street, Arielou 502 West Broad Street, Cerelyn Italia Lepecha, 502 West Broad Street, Ari Allou, 502 West Broad Street, Dennis Quinn, 44 West Broad Street, Andrew Siegel, 502 West Broad Street, Art Stern, 502 West Broad Street, Irene Tabatch, 502 West Broad Street, and Gail Wadsworth, 200 North Maple Avenue. In other topics, Justin Castillo advocated for a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, Sean Daken of 410 South Maple Avenue wrote in support of red light cameras, and Richard Klein wrote regarding signage at the volunteer fire station. Great. Thank you for summarizing all those. I think we're ready to receive public comment either live or virtually. Yes, we don't have anybody send up virtually. We do have a number of people here to speak about the budget. We do have a budget public hearing and on each of our tax and fee ordinances. So you're welcome to speak at that time or you can speak now in general public comment. I'll call your name if you just give me a high sign if you want to wait until the public hearing. Okay, all right, and so and we do have a three minute speaker time just to make sure we get everybody in. So you'll see. Thank you. Veronica's going to set that up for me. And when you get the yellow light on here, it'll be time to sum up. So first, signed tonight is Gail Bodner followed by Susan Demick. Is Gail here? No, Susan. So Susan? Yes, please. Maybe Gail will be here later. Oh, that's it all. Hello. Welcome. I'm the parent of a Meridian senior. I am also a former school board member. I have lived in Falls Church for over 25 years. And my family has lived here for over 60 years. I'm here to ask you to fully fund the schools. To reduce funding at this late date is irresponsible. The schools built their budget to meet your December guidance. Our school leadership has consistently worked hard to be fiscally responsible and stay within budget guidance. People move to Falls Church for our school system. high high property values are directly related to our high-quality schools. We have amazing schools because we meet the needs of our students and we have great staff. Our school system is growing in part because of our growing city. I ask that you fully fund our schools to meet this growth and to maintain our strong school system. False Church residents are proud of their schools and with the new superintendent joining us this summer, the right message for this council to send is that you recognize that our resources when pooled together can achieve a greater good than the small individual savings that taxpayers would receive from a 2.5 cent tax cut you are considering. Please fully fund our schools. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your years of service on the school board. Thank you. Next we have Carolyn Karai followed by John Ward. Thank you. So my remarks will not be as polished and to be honest Unfortunately given the situation they might border on Blunt to the point of uncivilized but in preference to my remarks to me Even considering cutting school funding is the epitome of uncivilized so my honest remarks while not personal Are an in-kind response I cannot even fathom contemplating, cutting the legs out from under our children academically, taking away the various supports they need to become well-rounded human beings. And if you vote to do that, if you vote to take away our tax dollars from one of the only things that truly matters, educating and setting our children up for success. Not only will the public record show that it is obviously insidious, frankly, it's embarrassing. I thought in this city, we are smarter and more principled than to even consider moving people's heart or in tax dollars away from their very own children via the removal of money from the school budget. As an April 27th email from Mary Beth Connelly states, we've gotten many comments regarding the budget. So this is a mass email reply to all who sent comments to the city clerk. The city is growing. The school population is growing and revenues are growing, which gives us numerous options to fill in the projected gap. Conscience dictates that you look just about anywhere else outside of our money meant for our children's education if you're hard up for our cash. As my six-year-old said tonight when I talked about how mommy and daddy were going to a meeting to stand up for no cuts, he said no cuts. Maybe even add more. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have John Ward followed by Edwin Henderson. What's your reason? Nothing, okay. That's all right. Okay, thanks. Good evening, thanks John Ward 335 Riley Street. I'm here just speaking on behalf of myself. I was a co-signer on a letter from the members of the false church climate action network a few weeks ago to City Council regarding FY26 budget. This was sent in before the recent discussion of possibly cutting or adjusting the tax rate not having the 2.5 cent reduction. And I noticed this morning in the question and answer documentation that the city staff is maybe recommending that the photo will take solar cell, solar rays will be funded in FY26 on Roarhouse and I'm here to endorse that recommendation and to thank the folks on the city council who have been advocated for that over the past months. I do recognize that there's still possibly some roofing issues there that need to be addressed. We've got the tax credit things that may change at the federal level. Tariffs and supply chain things may get in the way, but I do endorse putting the modest amount of money there so that the funding is available to pursue that project. They will be one of the first initial and more significant visible investments that has been made towards the energy plans that were adopted 18 months ago by City Council. We do have the geothermal heat pump system, very visible being done at community center. The HVAC system was on its last legs according to staff and the geothermal system was the most economical choice. It was just financially prudent to go that route. Periodically the school system has to replace its refresh its bus fleet. We spent a significant amount of money a couple years ago at transfer to the schools for a couple of new buses. But basically the net outlay there was the basic thing the same as a for diesel bus. We've got a couple years ago transferred to the schools for a couple of new buses But basically the net outlay there was the basic same as a for diesel bus We got a couple electric buses, but the funding was to unlock federal grant cost sharing so This particular option putting solar panels on Aurora House is something you don't really have to do and I do do want to thank City Council and the City staff for recommending that they pursue this effort that was laid out in the plans that were adopted a year and a half ago and putting that money aside and things go south. But at least the money is there for other environmental things and then to get that process going. If you're looking for ways to save a little money, although I think the renewable energy credits that are purchased every year, it's a very modest amount. I think in the Q&A it's at about $7,000. I think that's a separate leave. I think that's a fairly low value for the money. There was plenty on that and that's a place to trim. It's not much, but it's a little bit of something. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Edwin Henderson, followed by Nick Benton. Greetings from Tenerill Heritage, a 10th hill historic cultural district where I live at 307 South Maple Avenue. I'd like to remind the council and the city government here that we met with the the planning department in January and we put forth a three-year plan. I don't see any of it in the budget. And I'd like to discuss with the city, what we discuss, which includes signage and a gateway feature the first year. But Peter desert May, I also want to say that I don't know that his public knowledge yet, but Turner Hill is not doing our annual music festival this year. And I'd like that to be known publicly. But we're not going away. And we have a number of things that we have planned as well for June Teeth where the theme is freedom. Seeking freedom in America, we all came in for freedom. Some of us came here seeking freedom, some of us came in chains. But we all honor and cherish our freedom. That is the theme for this year's Juneteenth celebration that will be on Tener Hill on the appropriate date. Because we're also partnering with Veebus this year and partnering with them on a musical act for their music in the parks, concerts in the parks. However, their first concert is on June 19th and they always have the concert band on that date. Our day will be the following day on June the 26th, where we will be co-sponsoring and sharing the wealth or the payment with deepest to have a blues act on that date. This is what my wife says about what we're going to do on Juneteenth. Freedom, seeking freedom in America. I believe it is very important to bring the false church community together. And this is one event that can do it. And so I'd like to put that out there and put people on notice. We'll be back as we get closer to the date. And as we get through with the budget and everything, I know that's foremost on everybody's mind right now, we'll be back. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have an event followed by Holly on drop. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Council. One of the big concerns I have is, can we figure out a way to get the closed-catch-thing thing bigger up there so people it. It's very unreadable from the standpoint of anybody who actually might actually want to refer to it. So, at any rate. Yes, the clerk has copies of the book that it's just published, which I bought copies for all of you to share. It's called My Face, My Newspaper, and it's got a lot of false church history in it, especially the period when the big battle over the false church at Piscopal Church was waged over a seven-year period that actually led to the retention of the church property by the fiscal church of the fiscal diocese of Virginia that's there now and they're doing a great job building that church. So I think it's something that you'll find very interesting to read and it includes the text of the proclamation that you recently passed honoring the news press on its 34th birthday. I'm coming for you now because I sent you all a couple of years ago, the council had okayed the expenditure of $100,000 to promote local businesses through the fall of church news press. And we are now facing a very, we don't really know how bad it might get. As far as the restaurants in particular in fall of church, the many great restaurants that we've built up here. And what's gonna happen to them in the climate where everybody's pulling back on expenditures, I've got a plan, a very affordable plan to virtually triple even more the circulation of the news press beyond the 140 locations right here in the city to the five zip codes around the city that could get that information about our local restaurants and I want to introduce a theme like first heard in Southern California, Dine Along Falls Church's world famous restaurant Ro from West Falls to the Eden Center and to promote the local restaurants here in the community and get people from around the community where there's $14 billion worth of disposable income annually. It's a very wealthy community and get them into our restaurants, give them a shot. Well, what I'm asking and what I need to in order to do this is for a portion of the funds that were basically authorized to do advertising in the fall church news press, half of that, $50,000. Be advanced to us as a draw against advertising in order that we can actually launch this campaign. So I'm hoping you will consider, it's a pittance, it's just hardly anything in a multi-million dollar budget, but it's something that I think can make a huge difference for our restaurants. Thank you. Thank you. And we fixed this. Veronica did. We fixed it. Oh, there we go. Real time action. Well done. Oh, they're a genius. So, it's a little bit sweet. Other. Next, we have Holly Entrob followed, followed by Chris Graham. Hello, as you said, my name is Holly on Trab. I have, oh, I have lived in Falls Church City for 10 years. First it was for convenience, it was for a job. And then we had our son. And he's seven years old and we went at him to have the best education. So we did what we needed to do. We bought in the city. We're the best school district in the state is. And right now that's at risk. And that's very scary to me as a mom. I want, as all the other parents, the best for my child. And right now, with the proposed tax cut, with the budget cut, that's all at risk. And it's frustrating when it could be a simple fix. Instead of doing the 2.5 cent reduction, we could look at other solutions. The 0.5 cent reduction would allow us to continue to have the great education our kids need and deserve as well as saving the budget. So I ask kindly that you take a minute and really think about it. Think about all the children all the promises we've made to our children and help keep the budget at its current state. Thank you. Thank you next we have Chris Graham. Okay. Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening. My name is Chris Green. I live on Grove Avenue here in the City of Falls Church. I've been a homeowner in the City of Falls Church since 2002, but that did not start utilizing the schools until 2021. I have two boys, seven and nine. I was a late bloomer. But when my wife finally moved in with me in 2013, she looked at me and she said, geez, we can't move away from this place. Do you know how good the schools are here? And I looked and I thought, gosh, she's already talking about having kids. Oh no. At any rate, that levity aside, I do not support the cut to the school budget. I mean, I would rather like Holly said,, see the half-scent reduction in the real estate tax as opposed to the two and a half-scent. I don't feel like now is the time to cut school budgets. If you look in the news, Department of Education, educators around the country, Harvard University, everyone is under attack. Our teachers and our school staff do not deserve to be under attack. In this small hamlet that we live in, we all love them, we all live here, the majority of us live here because of the schools. Another thing that I wanted to add to that is I was under the impression with all of the development that's going on the last few years. So I lived on great fall street right across Mr. Snyder starting in 2002 and I've seen this city change for the better dramatically, especially with the development that's been going on. But I was always under the impression with the new development and a lot of the short-term inconveniences we've seen with construction that that would lessen some of the burden on our schools. We'd be bringing in a younger demographic, but instead we're seeing actual school enrollments go up. We all want to live here, but we, the majority of us do not want to see the school budget decreased. It's going to impact our children, our teachers, more importantly, the staff that supports those teachers and our kids' futures. Council members, I'm asking you, do not submit our educators and our school staff to budget cuts and keep the budget intact. Thank you. That I'm there. That's all we have signed up for public comment. Great. Well, if anyone would like to give public comment later on as we have the public hearing, you're welcome to when we get to those items. And then also, I'm just going to make a plug because this is a council that's very much committed to listening to the community. So beyond kind of Monday nights when we take public hearings, I think there's been some confusion on when you can give public comment. So obviously we have Monday night regular meetings, but we also hold monthly office hours. First Wednesday in City Hall at 9 AM, should that, you know, Monday nights not be a convenient time for you. And then some of us also hold individual office hours. And so this is a council that aspires to be very accessible and to listen whether it's in a formal setting like this over email or an informal setting such as office hours, which I've personally been doing for about 10 years. office hours. And so this is a council that aspires to be very accessible and to listen whether it's in a formal setting like this over email or an informal setting such as office hours, which I've personally been doing for about 10 years now. So let's move on to the agenda. I think up next is the Arts and Humanities Council Annual Report. Yes, I believe Ron Anzalan is here. Good evening, Mayor Hardy, Vice Mayor Hiscott, Council members. My name is Ron Anzalone. I live at 212 West Cameron Road, and I serve as the vice chair of the Arts and Humanities Council. On behalf of Chair Laura Conner's Hall and our fellow members, we're pleased to present you with the annual report for 2024. Now we apologize for the length of this document, but we did wish to ensure that not only would you be able to see what the Arts and Humanities Council has been up to over the course of the year, but also have the individual member organizations that make up the council are fulfilling their missions to enthusiastic involvement and response to their efforts from the public, one of which is the Vietnamese artistic and literary club, and you've heard from them this evening. The visual and performing arts are flourishing in Falls Church and 2024 was a very busy and productive year for us and the many creative individuals engaged in artistic and cultural endeavors. I want to give special thanks to our staff liaison, Holly Irwin, staff member Mike Guy, our City Council representative, just in Underhill, and of course our enthusiastic and involved members. Any other members of Council, Mayor Hardy, this Connolly, who've been involved in what we've been doing. We also wish to thank the various businesses, project developers, and creative team members for working with member organizations and the city to ensure that public art is an integral part of the city's landscape now and into the future. And maybe not everyone will like every piece of public art that goes up, but then that will spark a conversation as well. I want to highlight two issues for your consideration as we move through 2025 and beyond first. To get the best bang for the buck culturally and artistically, we're recommending that the Arts and Humanities Council be included earlier in the planning and review process for voluntary concessions with proposed public art on new development projects. And we talk about that a little bit in the annual report about some of our experience. And second, while we understand that circumstances are challenging as we've just been hearing, and that the budget for next year is very tight, we do recommend that the arts program fund grants be increased slightly if at all possible to ensure continued excellence and diversity that everyone in the city is coming to expect from our public art and artists support cultural performance historical interpretation and related program activities. And the one observation I have again, the report talks about this, is that we need to expand the pool a little bit of organizations that are eligible for grants in the city. And there are new groups that are coming in looking for ways to find that funding, such as the Vietnamese artistic and literary club. So thank you. I'd be pleased to address any questions you may have. Thank you, Mr. Anzalone. Thank you for your years of service on this and other boards. Thank you so much for your presentation. I love the art walk. Are we doing that again this year? We are doing that again. Great. And you may know that World Art Day in Falls Church was postponed this from this last weekend because of weather issues or potential weather issues. We hope we're not going to have another problem on Saturday, but it's postponed to this coming Saturday. So May 3rd will be art day in church and will be a mix of visual and performing arts as well as historical interpretation and so on. Great. Thank you for to you and the accounts of our all of your work to make this city more beautiful. Really appreciate it. Ms. Gondale. Mr. Anselon, and to all the members of the Arts and Humanities Council, over the years, you have really jelled and worked together in a very good way. I was the representative 12 years ago or so and it was just beginning and there were a lot of how to figure out how to make, have all these groups work together and you really have done a great job and it's great to see so much public art in the City of Falls Church. It's wonderful to have so many arts organizations that are also working and to see people working together. Makes a big difference. So thank you for sticking with it all these years. And we look forward to so much more in the future. I just wanted to say that I know how much work went into putting together this report. And I was looking through it today. And earlier, it's really impressive. And just seeing what all the different groups in our city have done and accomplished in the past year and all the photos of all the wonderful events that have happened is really inspiring. And so thank you for, I guess, hurting all of this together into this reporting. Know all the work that went into it and all the work that all the groups put into actually making the arts and events happen. So thank you. Everybody stepped up. Yeah, great. Vice Mayor. At the risk of being repetitive, I too want to thank you and add that in particular, adding the cultural event last year that Justin and I had an opportunity to participate in was particularly fun and a new and great improvement in our arts and cultural society. So thank you for all your work. I'm really appreciate it. And they'll be back out there. I saw I heard that earlier this evening. I was pleased to hear that and I recognized some of the the dresses that we were also provided. Thanks. Any other final, Mr. Schneider? Thanks very much. I also wanted to point out a great opening at Creative Coltern on Saturday with a very meaningful new play. Just one more example. You know when you think about about the arts, they're really one of the things that really create community and maintain it. And I want to thank you and everyone involved. It's such a great example of citizens coming forward and volunteering and contributing their knowledge and their skills and their art for the benefit of the community. So please pass on my appreciation to everyone at the point. Thank you, Mr. Smith. And I don't want you to take my silence as a lack of appreciation for the council. So I also wanted to say thank you. And as Mr. Snyder said, you know, you think about the social fabric of communities and really, you know, so many wonderful contributors and generous organizations and the people in those organizations that really making our community as vibrant as it is and as cohesive as it is and also as outward and forward looking as it is. So thank all of you. And it's old folks like me as well as the really little folks who are contributing. Thank you. And thank you for your budget note. It's something that we will keep in mind as we continue deliberating. And the next we have the annual report from the Planning Commission. Welcome, Ms. Comon and Mr. Stevens. It's on. Good evening, Council Mayor Hardy. Nice. and Mr. Stevens. It's on. Good evening, Council Mayor Hardy, Vice Mayor Hiscott, members of City Council. I'm Andrea Cormont. I'm serving as Chair of the Planning Commission for 2025. I'm here tonight to deliver our annual report. First, I'd like to thank staff and my fellow commissioners in 2024 Robert Puentes served as our Chair. I was Vice chair. We were also joined by Brent Krasner, Tim Stevens, Derek Hyra, Sharon Friedlander and Phil Duncan. Mr. Pentez and Mr. Hyra stepped down at the beginning of this year, so this year we are joined by two new planning commissioners, Bob Krovensky and Danny Polinsky. We're also very ably supported by our city staff, including in 2024 from a director of planning Paul Stoddard and currently interim planning director Gary Fuller and then senior planner Jack Trainor serves as our planning commission clerk. We're also grateful for the contributions from our city council liaison just in Underhill and for all the support and guidance that we get from staff. So Planning Commission advises both City Council and the City Manager's Office on various planning matters within the city. We uphold the principles of the City's conference of plan and recommend changes to the plan periodically through a collaborative process with city staff in the community. We currently have the authority to review and approve subdivision site plans and easements. However, new Virginia state legislation recently passed in January SB 974 would remove site plans and subdivisions from the purview of the PC. We discussed this change at our last meeting as it is significant and we're awaiting further information from staff and our legal counsel, Ms. Gillette. So in 2024, some more to come on that. In 2024, the Planning Commission held 20 regular meetings and we reviewed a wide variety of land use related items. Land use applications included the Maple and Anondale Special Exception, the Oak Park Town Homes Site Plan, the Lee Park Town Homes Site Plan, the Yassini Jewelers Site Plan, the Founders Road 2 Public Art Site Plan Amendment, and the Econize Closet Site Plan. On the Comprehensive Plan front, we undertook some updates. In 2024, we reviewed and approved an update to the demographics chapter of our Comprehensive Plan, the Tinerhill Historic and Cultural District, an amendment to chapter three of our Comprehensive Plan, Community Character and Design, an update, an update to our bicycle master plan that was approved in January of this year. We also reviewed a first draft of an update to the public utilities chapter of the comprehensive plan and plan to continue that work this year in collaboration with staff. We also undertook some code updates, including an update to our floodplain ordinance, commercial parking, relief zoning code amendment, and the accessory dwelling zoning code amendment. Much of the planning commission's work is aligned with Council's strategic priorities for 2024 and 2025, which include environmental sustainability, transportation, economic development, housing, and good governments. At its annual advance, the Planning Commission reviewed the County Year 2025 Planning Department work program and identified some priority items should additional staff resources become available. Those included some comprehensive plan chapter updates including chapter one the introduction and vision chapter of the comprehensive Plan that was last updated in 2017. In Chapter four, our Land Use chapter with a preceding scoping study. That chapter was last updated in 2005. On the transportation planning front, we prioritized e-bike, scooter and low speed electric vehicle regulations. On the environmental sustainability front, we prioritize strengthening our green building standards. And in the realm of zoning ordinance review and cleanup, we prioritize taking a look at our B2 commercial use, updating our B2 commercial uses, including daycare and recreational commercial uses. And also revisiting our cottage housing ordinance. Staff provided four recommendations for a sort of phase two for cottage housing that would allow for additional projects to occur. Projects that the City Council could consider for their next work plan, calendar year 2627, include updates to the Conference of Plan Chapter 3, uh, the community character appearance and design chapter, the West and small area plan, and also our city sign ordinance. We received a letter from the BZI, um, I believe council did to stating that our sign order is outdated, and overly limiting and it results in frequent variances that are consistently granted, which is the basis for an update. So on behalf of the Planning Commission, I just want to say that we all look forward to working with you this year, and I'm happy to take any questions or comments tonight and back to the Planning Commission. Thanks for your time this evening. Great. Thank you, Ms. Cohn. Thank you for the really the volume, depth, and breadth of work. I think that was very evident based on your annual reports. Thank you for that. I'm sure we likely have comments up here. This one. I can start. I'll just thank the whole planning commission again. I said to Chair Puntos, last year that I feel as though the planning commission really just does such a great job engaging in difficult conversations, sort of grappling with difficult issues, and that anyone who tunes into those meetings sees their government in action in terms of debate and consideration and sort of the back and forth over a whole host of changes, but how you move communities forward, how you do it, while sort of respecting community values and community input. And so thank all of you for your continued work together and collaboration and respect for each other's opinions. And I'm really excited with the current sort of complement of commissioners and everything that each of you brings to your conversations. So thank you again. Thank you and thank you for all of your really terrific feedback, Miss Flynn. Vice Mayor. I think Erin said it pretty particularly. So I just want to add my echo my thanks in terms of I know the hours that plan all planning commission members put in and the seriousness with which they take their tasks to really dig into the details to work and find what is happening regionally, nationally, internationally, and I just appreciate all the thoroughness that each of the planning commissioners has brought to the task. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Hill. Just wanted to echo the thanks. And I do have one comment and a couple of questions. I wholeheartedly agree with the 2025 work plan that you laid out and that fits very well with Council's priorities, especially the transportation planning, the environmental sustainability, and building standards is something that's, we've been looking forward to for a long time and I know that Paul Stauderd was, that was something near and dear to him. So I'm just glad that to see that continuing on. For the recommendations for next council work plan, could you talk a little bit more about why those two specifically I'm looking at comprehensive plan chapter three, community character as well as the West End small area plan we're selected out of everything else. My recollection from Ari, this is discussed in our Planning Commission advance and I believe the Community Character appearance and design chapter is also quite dated, it's also from 2005 and we felt like that was a good next option in terms of the comprehensive plan updates. The one that is currently underway, the public utilities is also quite dated, and then the land use chapters is quite dated. And so that was sort of like next in the pecking order. There might have been one more that is also from 2005. So sort of bringing those outdated chapters up to date, and so that they reflect our current vision for our community. And then the West End Small Area Plan, we just feel like a lot has happened in the West End. I think that small area plan, I can't remember the date for it. It might have been 2016-ish. So it's probably been about 10 years and we think it would be a good time to revisit it. And it's funny, so we just had arts and humanities up here. I'm the liaison to that. I'm the liaison to the planning commission. I'm also the liaison to the architectural advisory board. And that the update to the comprehensive plan chapter three really pairs with what they're asking for too. But also specifically design guidelines and other things they were interested to look at, because I think our design guidelines are from 2001. So anyway, I'll throw that out to council for our next work plan to really, that didn't make it into this current work plan, but hopefully for the next time we get at it, that can be a priority. Thank you. Just chime in for one more thing, thinking of when you remind me of one of your commissions that ESC has also been talking about green building codes and so that, again, you're just showing that you're reflecting our boards and commissions are also working on and incorporating their expertise into that as well. And when you get to the public utilities, just that again, you're just showing that you're reflecting what our boards and commissions are also working on and incorporating their expertise into that as well. And when you get to the public utilities discussion, bringing the public utilities commission on board would be great as well, because there's a lot of community expertise which will augment the expertise that you as planning commissioners bring to the forefront too. So thank you for that. For sure, yeah, we look forward to working with a variety of boards and commissions on updating these chapters. Miss Downs. Well, thank you very much. I know Ms. Underhill is sick, because when I ran for city council and you and I first met pretty much everything on your work plan for 2025. Ms. Underhill mentioned to me. So I know that she's very supportive as a my, I think it's terrific. The strengthening the green building standards and also the e-bike scooter, low speed electrical, electric vehicle regulations. That's something that actually came up during the campaign. So very supportive of that. And I just wanted to thank you and the Planning Commission for all of your work. You know, obviously we went through a very difficult vote with the accessory dual-in units. And I know that we where we ended up wasn't in agreement with all of your recommendations, but we definitely couldn't have come to any kind of vote without your expertise and the Planning Commission. So we couldn't do it without you all. So thank you very much for your work. Thank you. That's your cider. Thanks very much. You know, the Planning Commission. commission so we couldn't do it without you also thank you very much for your work. Thank you. That's your slider. Thanks very much. You know the planning commission has unique powers under our charter and it's much appreciated over the years how much time and expertise have been contributed by the planning commission to the city under our charter and I know there have been some legislative developments from Richmond. I'm very anxious to hear more about what your thoughts are with regard to that. And I want to thank you in particular for your work with CACT and now on the planning commission. So thanks a lot for your service. There is one additional thing I'd like to add to your agenda if possible. Lead version five is in the process of being released and it has much more on resilience than previously. So I would be interested in the Planning Commission maybe taking a look at that and putting your eyes on that to see if there isn't something that we should consider citywide. But it's an interesting development and I know that the lead folks are focused in this time of volatile weather and climate issues are more focused than ever before in resilience. And I think that's something we need to keep in mind as a very high priority here. So any thoughts that planning commissioners have on that and about how we might incorporate that into both city buildings as well as recommendations for private buildings would be much appreciated. Thank you. Great, thank you. I think that will probably be something that we would discuss as part of the green building standards discussion for sure. So thank you for flagging it. And we talked about it from that. You see, as already jumping on that lead and had we had a long discussion about that as well. So staff is really diving into so it'll be a good collaboration to make sure that it happens. moving forward to you actually won't be able to use the old lead so we will be thinking on how to make lead that it happens. Lead is moving forward so you actually won't be able to use the old lead. So we will be thinking on how to make lead fact. I don't believe it is how to incorporate it best into our next building standards. Thank you. Great. Well, thank you. Echo everything that my colleague said. The one thing I will mention is I was a big fan of your speaker series because I just in general think it's important for us to lift our heads up from fall shirt and learn how others people are doing it. So look forward to hopefully anything else you've got lined up along these lines. Yeah, I'd love to bring that back. We actually didn't have any speakers in 2024, so we hopefully, we can relaunch it in 2025. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, I think we're ready for the report of the city manager. Thank you Mayor Hardy. Thank you. Okay, I think we're ready for the report of the City Manager. Thank you, Mayor Hardy, members of Council. I have three things to report on. Tonight, the first is the Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan is under development right now. The purpose of this plan is to identify accessibility deficiencies efficiencies in the city's built environment and the public sphere and proposed solutions that will be executed through a capital improvements program, then the city will then continue to make steady progress in addressing these deficiencies over time. For instance, whenever the city paved streets, you see that we do take out and replace all of the sidewalk ramps so that they're up to current standards for accessibility. Kong Nguyen is our project leader on this and he's doing a great job. One of the things that he will be doing in the coming days is going a tour with the chair of our HSAC committee, Mr. Jeff Persons, and get sort of identify some areas that people in the community, members of our community, where we found there are difficulties with accessibility. And so that kind of information is just, is very helpful for making sure that this plan addresses real needs. So I want to thank Mr. Nguyen for his work on that. The second- Mr. Young, do you know the target? It is well underway and so I think it will be completed relatively soon but we'll get the date to the council. Okay. The Commissioner of Revenue has sent out a mailer to new residents in the city to remind us all to have our vehicles registered with the commissioner so that they're part of our property tax book, which is finished up in August. The commissioner just recently put out 1,800 mailers to identify households that aren't showing up on our DMV roles right now and to encourage those households to get their vehicles registered. The city website is a great resource for that right on the left hand side. On the left hand ribbon is a link for vehicle registration to make it easy for the public to get their vehicles registered. And then lastly, the third thing I want to report on is congratulations to the Mary Riley Styles Library. They were recognized by the Virginia Association of Library Directors. For excellence, they are a Gold Star Library by the Virginia Association. But more especially, Paula Hawkins was recognized with their outstanding staff member award for her work in promoting the library in the context of the 125th anniversary which we celebrated over the course of last year. So congratulations to Paula and congratulations to the entire library staff and to the whole community. That's my report tonight. Happy to answer any questions. Great. Thank you for sharing that good news. Do we have questions or council requests, Ms. Connolly? I just have one comment, Mr. Shields, regarding the postcard that the commission sent out. Someone stopped me today and said, what do I have to do? I just got this. I didn't realize. So I think it's helping. That new residents are realizing they have to do something. So please share that thanks with the commissioner that that is going out and we are all of course happy to help support that in any way needed because we would like to make sure that all the car scare register. Are there council questions, comments, requests? The light night. Okay. Okay, well I actually have one. I actually just, just one. I saw News Late in the day that Congressman Jerry Connelly is not seeking re-election due to return of his cancer. So while he's not our representative in the 11th district, I just thought we should thank him for a service. I think anyone with kind of local experience, local government experience is always a really good partner and so he's been a good partner for us in the eighth district. So I want to make a request to staff if we can send a letter on behalf of false search, thanking him for his years of service. Madam Mayor, I'd like to strongly support that. Thank you for bringing that up. Without Jerry Conley, there would not have been a silver line. More than any other person he brought together, not only for years and years and years, a silver line was just a line on the maps. And Jerry Conley insisted that that stay on there. And it was really him. And of course, others, the Jerry in particular, really brought all the elements together. He not only had the vision, but he had the ability to see it through. And he's been a real partner with our Congress people over the years in regional and national and local priorities. So thank you for raising that. And my heartfelt sympathy and support goes out to Jerry and his entire family. Thank you. Okay. Any other council requests or comments before we move on to business on the agenda? Okay. Madam Clerk, can you call the first tonight please? Yes for second reading and public hearing we have TO25-07 ordinance to amend the city code of the City of Falls Church chapter 26 motor vehicles and traffic to add and enact article eight pedestrian protection. Thank you, Madam Clerk and Madam Mayor, members of Council, I'll be standing in tonight for Chief Fard. This ordinance is before you for public hearing, second reading, and it follows your first reading on March 10th, and the recommendation of the citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation, their recommendation of approval. They met on April 9th and the only change they had recommended is highlighted there under the background section of your staff report, which was to eliminate the ability to cross intersections diagonally. In talking with the chief, his concern is that the city doesn't currently have the technology or road designs to accommodate that diagonal crossing at this time. And so if that were to become a, if we did develop that technology and road design in the future, we could add that provision to the ordinance at that time. That's the update on this and I'm happy to take any questions or we can go to the public hearing. Do we have any council questions or comments before I open it up to public hearing? I just have a comment. I'd like to plus one having that discussion in the future about diagonal intersections because we have seen have they've been incredibly effective in European Asian cities and so it's just something I want to keep out there to explore but it makes perfect sense that we don't have that option now to remove it from this ordinance. Thank you. Plus one, even in the U.S. they have scrambles and diagonal crossings and they don't slow cars down because it actually removes the cycle from the traffic light. So I would encourage us to explore and be innovative in this region. Okay, no other council comments appear so I'm going to open up for public hearing other members of the public who wish to speak on this item. Okay, seeing none, I'm gonna, oh, welcome. This big doll, turn on your mic and state your name. You have false church. I just wanted a point of clarification. I don't know that you have it every, the technology everywhere, but for a week maybe they set at the intersection of West Street, you know, Founders Row, you know know the bike path and park. They did set that traffic light. So you could actually do a scramble where they stopped all the cars and you could cross from, you know, the, the, this side corner to the other side, you could cross that intersection as a diagonal. I mean, I was there. I witnessed it. They undid it after about a week, but it was nice for that week. Anyway, that's all. Thank you very much. Thank you, I was a fan too. As Mr. Shields knows. Okay. Any other public comments on this one? Okay, see none, I'm closing the public hearing. Any final council comments or may I have a motion? Madam Mayor, I'd like to move to adopt Teal 25-07. To leave a second. I think it's Ms. Downs on the second. Can you call roll please? Ms. Conley? Yes. Ms. Downs? Yes. Ms. Flynn? Yes. Ms. Shonson's God? Yes. Mr. Snyder? Yes. Ms. Underhill? Yes. And Mayor Hardy? Yes. Motion carries 7 to 0. Thank you, Council. You call the next items? Yes, the next four. The next item is the item. The next item is the item. The next item is the item. The next item is the item. The next item is the item. The next item is the item. The next item is the item. The next item is the item. The next item is the item. The next public hearing and close it. Okay great. Thank you. We have TO25-02 ordinance fixing and determining the budget of expenditures and revenues and appropriating funds for the fiscal year. 2026 general fund sewer fund stormwater fund cable access fund affordable housing fund school operating fund school community, school food service fund, community development authority and capital improvement program funds, and to adopt the FY26 to FY2031 capital improvements program. Our second public hearing will be on TO25-03, ordinance setting the rate of tax levy on real estate for tax year, 2026, and on personal property machinery and tools and all other properties segregated by law for local taxation in the city of false church Virginia for tax year 2025. We have TO 25-04 ordinance to set the stormwater utility billing unit rate in accordance with chapter 42, article 7 of the code of the city of false church Virginia as of July July 1, 2025. And then we have to go 25-05 ordinance to amend, reenact and re-codify chapter 42 utilities to revise sewer rates and fees as of July 1, 2025. I know we have a conflict of interest disclosure. The C Council is discussing the FY 26 budget for the city of false church. I am an employee of the false church city school board, which may be affected by the proposed fiscal policies. As a result, I am in a group of three more people who may realize a reasonable, direct or indirect benefit from the proposed ordinance. After consideration, I am electing to participate in this transaction because I'm confident in my ability to participate fairly objectively and in the public interest. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Shields. Well, thank you, Mayor Hardy, members of council. So for the four items that are up, we have the budget and the CIP ordinance, the tax ordinance, and then the sewer rate ordinance and then the stormwater fee ordinance. The purpose of tonight is to have an opportunity for the public to weigh in with a public hearing. We do have just a few slides that we can share with the city council in terms of some of the things we discussed at the budget town hall meeting last Thursday where we noted that in light of the third quarter financial reports and the latest data that we have on revenues that impact the current fiscal year, we're anticipating that meals taxes, sales taxes, and business license taxes in particular are coming in below projections for the current fiscal year. And we have accordingly revised down and had to revise down, we believe to be responsible in our budgeting, our revenue forecast for the FY 26 budget, which is before the council right now. What we've identified is $1.2 million in terms of revision to those revenue forecasts for the coming year. And so in order to address those, the council's asked for levers in terms of how we could close that gap, including revenue levers and including spending reduction levers. And so the purpose of the slides coming up is to go through some of those numbers together. So one just in terms of some of the basics for every penny on the real estate tax rate generate $630,000. And one of the things that has also been discussed by the council just to give the council some options was to have the vehicle tax rate go back to the $5 rate which it was before the pandemic. The city council lowered the personal property tax rate. And the immediate aftermath of the pandemic to provide tax relief to residents, there was a step up of that rate to 480. I think last year, maybe two years ago, and that is the rate where it is today. And so if that were raised raised to $5 that would generate $280,000 in additional revenue Next slide, please And then it just went away. Okay, well, that's the end of the presentation. And we're done for that. We'll give it just a moment. We'll come up next is just a few slides that show some different versions of different tax rates. And I'm not going to walk through those in detail that the City Council may want to come back to those to just to spend a little bit more time with them. But to kind of cut to the chase in terms of budget reductions at the, well, maybe I will walk through it just briefly. Well. faking you out. But why don't we just spend? Okay. So, so we have a $1.2 million shortfall and that would be at the $1.18.5 cents on the tax rate, which was the original proposed budget. If that were revised to a 1 and a half cent cuts, so I'll just go to the middle at a rate of $1.19 and a half, that would increase the impact for the average homeowner of just about $100 and require $570,000 in total cuts between the general government and the schools. Under the principles of revenue sharing, the way that those principles have worked for the past seven years is that new revenue that comes into the city through organic growth is split 50-50 between the schools and the general government. The actual ratio of local taxes is slightly higher than goes to schools than relative that goes to the general government. But in terms of the growth and the new revenue, that's split 50-50. And so accordingly, if there's a reduction in those local tax revenues, they would also be split 50-50. So that would be under that middle scenario of of column C, $285,000 in reductions for both the general government and the schools. If we had a one-cent cut to a rate of a dollar 20, that would result in a $577 increase for average homeowner, inclusive of the Sanitary Sufi, Suwerfi and the Storm Motorfi and the real estate taxes, and we would have 127,500 and cuts on both the general government and on the school side. If we go to the next slide, if we add in the car tax increase to just show kind of what that would look like, if we take the average, I believe the average car on the rolls is valued at 15,000, I had been quoting 20,000 earlier, but if we use that average vehicle, and the increase to $5 per $100 of AV for the car tax would be an additional $30 per vehicle. And so we, I don't know that we've done the analysis of how many vehicles the average of the median household has in the city, we could do that as well, but just taking it as one, which I think probably undercounts it, that would be an additional $30. So for the one and a half cent cut, which is the column C, just as the example at a rate of a dollar 19 and a half, the impact to the homeowner would be 556, and the reductions in budgets for both the schools and the general government would need to be 145,000 each. So those are some scenarios that I know the council will want to come back to and probably ask some questions on. Next slide. And working with staff on the general government side, some of the reductions in spending that we've been working through and analyzing include the community planning and economic development director position, which is currently vacant. We are in the process right now of hiring our planning director. We're very excited about the candidates that we have for planning director and interviews will be happening this week. We're the director position. I do want to be clear that is very impactful to the organization. If we lose that position, the division chiefs of our zoning administrator, our building official, our planning director, and our economic development director all currently report to that position. And those division chiefs are all very supportive of having that position to support the work of those four really important areas for the city. Over the period of the vacancy, those four division chiefs have been reporting directly to the deputy city manager and a young. And I think the team has been doing very well. And a lot of really great work has been happening over this interim period. One of the key things that that director does provide for the city has provided for us in the past is a Good visionary leader a very strong voice within the organization for growing the commercial Tax space for supporting our business community and And bringing new investment to the city If this position weren't filled we would need more people to step up to perform that role. And I personally would need to play a larger role in that area than I have probably in the last four to five years. But there is talent within the organization where we try to meet that need. The Red Light Camera Program, that is a program that we've had and we've fought very hard to have in the city, camera enforcement. We believe is a very important part of overall public safety. The city has three really important photo enforcement programs, including the red light camera program, the speed program, which is in our school zones, school zone one in particular on Broad Street and the bus stop arm camera enforcement program. So if we were to have a pause and the photo red program for a year, we would assess that program. We would look for potentially bringing it back in the future, but we would make a decisive pause this year But we would continue the other photo enforcement programs That reduction in spending is our direct cost to the contractor is what is related in that number Net of any revenues that come from citations so that is sort of the net fiscal impact of cutting that program. And then the third one that's listed here is our watch night event. This is that 35,000 is inclusive of payments of overtime to staff for that event, as well as the direct payment to to contractors and vendors and community partners for watch night. Watch night is amongst our events that the city loves. That staff really loves to hold. This is one that has the most uneven attendance relative to the amount of effort that we put into it. It is highly weather dependent and and and attendance has suffered I think particularly since the pandemic. The city staff, a rec and park staff and the entire organization does take these public events very seriously. We think they're really important for community and we would evolve as an organization to find new ways to celebrate community but possibly leave this particular event and not do it anymore under this proposal. So what we were trying to do in terms of our staff work was really think about things, you know, decisive actions that we could take that would actually be unquestionably an impact to the organization and to the community, but our reductions that we think that if the Council were to go in this direction we could sustain those reductions in spending. And I think that's really important in terms of the mindset. It is my belief and I think it is Ms. Bawa's belief that this is going to be a multi-year contraction in the national capital regional economy. And so the decisions that we're making need to be ones that will be reductions that will stick with, probably for possibly for several years. Again, all these can evolve over time, but I think that's the mindset that we need to have. Next slide. So the next slide is just a summary of some of the other markups that we know that the council has been discussing and there are probably additional ones, but we want to start to have that list in mind as a setup for your work session next Monday. So the council has discussed the playground equipment at Crossman Park in particular. We also have the Cavalier Trail Park so we can discuss both. We have heard council desire to to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of work to do. comment that I know we've heard from council about the possibility of needing to meet that need in our markup of next for you for that tonight but that is a comment that I know we've heard from council about the possibility of needing to meet that need in our markup of next next Monday. So those are the main points that I wanted to make tonight. The last slide is just the schedule for the public's benefit. Oh I'm sorry. Solid waste. Very importantly. Solid waste. So we did have our town hall meeting on Thursday and we introduced the idea to the public of having a short study period that would occur between now and August where we would have community members work with staff to work through some of the options that we've been discussing about changing how we finance solid waste and Moving towards a fee structure and lieu of having solid waste in the tax rate We would if this if the council were to go in this direction We would have a resolution to authorize this task force and make the appointments to it Or possibly have the city manager make the appointments to it just for expediency so that this work can get underway immediately and have the report do on August 4th. By hitting that deadline then the city council would have room then to consider both a reduction in the tax rate and a solid waste fee as a joint action in that August and September time frame and then it would show up in the December bill just as it would if you took this action on May 12th and so that's what staff is recommending to the City Council to give us some additional time to study those important issues. And then the last slide tonight is public hearing or May 5th work session, which is the markup session for the city council. And then May 12th is when there's public hearing and final consideration. And for the public, all of the budget information is found on the city's website backslash budget and public comment Can can be you can reach us at budget at false search VA dot gov and Appreciate all the public comment that we have gotten so far We've gotten a lot of comment on this year's budget and we do read every comment that we get and really appreciate the engagement. Great and thank you to staff for I guess budget season as well we know that this is a hard time of year when you keep general government going and also engage with us in the community on making these important decisions so thank you for the work. I want to take council questions and comments and then open for public hearing. What's the preference of council? Sorry. Open up. Okay. Okay. So let's call the first item for public hearing. Do we have to do them individually or can we call them together? I believe we should hold them individually. Okay. Let's open up public hearing for TO25-07 or no, TO25-02. Okay. Let's open a public hearing for T O 25-07 or no T O 25-02. Which is the budget ordinance and CIP. CIP. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak on the budget and CIP? T O 25-02. Anyone online or submitted? No, ma'am. Okay, so you know I'm gonna close that public hearing. The next one is TO25-03 on the tax rate That is real estate and personal property any members of public wish to speak on this one Okay closing that public hearing Any members of the public wishes to speak on TO25-04, that's stormwater utility billing rate? Okay, we're going to close that public hearing. TO25-05, that's the sewer the sewer rate and fees. Anyone want to speak on that? Okay we're gonna close public hearing. I think that's all for it. And again as I said at the beginning of the night we would be glad to continue hearing from you over email or at office hours and we we'll have another regular meeting of the night that we adopt the budget on May 12. Okay, council. I'm sure we have questions and comments. Well, no one's jumping. So actually, if I could just maybe take just maybe a minute. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. 2018 and I remember budgets pre 2018 before we had revenue sharing and I think it's been a really great innovation And so I want to thank Ms. Connelly and other council members who contributed to that because I 2018 and I remember budgets pre 2018 before we had revenue sharing and I think it's been a really great innovation And so I want to thank Ms. Connelly and other council members who contributed to that because I think that's been important in Sharing the growing revenue of the city and end of your surpluses that we've experienced as well and also sharing about taxpayers We've also been able to cut the tax rate 14 cents over the past three years and so that really has been remarkable remarkable. The second fact that I think seems have gotten lost through some of the public comments is budgets are actually still growing. They're actually growing 6.5% on the general government side and 7% as proposed on the school side. That is actually also quite remarkable. That is actually two to three times the growth rates of what our neighbors are seeing. And the reason why the tax rate cut was even on the table is when we saw that property assessments because Falschert has been a desirable place to live, as well as all the commercial growth had increased our property values between 8 to 15 percent. I think Council in December during guidance talked about wanting to limit the impact of that to the median homeowner to around $300, $400 or so. I think that was a 3.5% increase of CPI. And so that's why that 2.5% was proposed. Tax bills are actually still going up. So no one's bills are going down. Sorry, I wish we could do that. But bills are still going up $400, even with that 2.5% tax cut. And I think that seems have gotten lost through some of the comments. So one, budgets are so growing, they're quite healthy compared to our neighbors. I realized getting, and I think, you know, I thank Mr. Shields and Ms. Bawa for making that tough call. When we got Q3 data that said our sales and meals tax is not performing the way we wanted to. Making that tough call that we need to revise revenue forecasts, I realized that it's very disruptive both for our school partners as well as our city departments who've been working on a budget. No one likes to do that, but I mean, that's the reality. And actually, I went and looked at Arlington Meals Tax Data. There's this actually decreasing year over year. And so I think when I looked at ours and saw what correct me from, it was flat compared to last year. So not performing as well as we want, but flat. I think we'd be a far worse situation if we did not have the growth we had, because we would actually see meals tax revenue declining. That said, I do think that we're going to have worse times on the horizon. So anyway, I just wanted to correct things out there because I think hearing some of the public comments tonight about budgets being cut and how terrible that's going to be budgets are still growing. And I think what we had signaled in our first reading vote by keeping the tax rate ceiling at a flat tax rate gives us room to maneuver how we can balance obviously the changes in the economy. April 2025 is a very different world than where we were in December 24 when we set budget guidance. So this is a council that has expressed the desire to still care for taxpayers, care for the growing needs of a community and do it reasonably. So that's what we're here tonight and we'll do in the next few weeks. So thank you for letting me at least share some more facts based on some of the public comments we've heard. Ms. Connelly. And I'll just add to what Ms. Hardy said. You mentioned we're in budget season, but really budget season is six months long or even longer. So we're in the home stretch of budget season like the last two weeks. Maybe it's the end of season tournament. And that is really intense for everyone. The community members elected officials and staff of both the general government and school. So thank you for all the work. You've put in Mr. Shilks' thanks for these suggestions about how we, what are the levers we can use to figure out how to do this right. And I just want to read the email that I sent to people because one of the commoners read one sentence of it, but there's a lot more to it there. So I'm just going to read that to make sure where everyone understands where I'm coming from, which is thank you for your comment. Every year budget decisions are difficult because city council members work hard to consider all of the needs in the city. As a small jurisdiction, the city has taken many steps in the past 20 years to increase revenues and fund the needs of both schools and general government. As property values continue to increase, we know we're doing a lot of things right. The city's growing, school population is growing and revenues are growing, which gives us numerous options to fill in the projected gap. Given the current economic climate, we're working to make the best decision possible that will take all concerns into account. Your voice matters, and I appreciate your involvement. Stay tuned to the next two weeks as decisions for FY 2026 are made. And please stay involved in the coming years because annual budgets are always challenging and are always improved with the involvement of community members. So I think that is really important. And as we hear from community members about what their priorities are, about what our priorities are, it's really important to hear from a lot of people. And it seems like every budget season has a story. Like no matter what you think it's going to be in January by the time we get to April or May, there's always something else that comes up in this year. The changes in the federal landscape are huge to false church. And that was, we feared that when we started talking about this in December and they have come true. Luckily we have options. And that's what I was referring to with my email back. So, and I'm also certain that no one here wants to do damage to any part of the city, including, you know, city hall, the schools, the property yard, transportation, all of it, we value and all of it, we're trying to balance along with the needs of our taxpayers. So we also end up turning ourselves inside out of our few cents every time. For as long as I've been doing this, before I've been doing this, we're turning us, we've worked so hard on a budget that is a big budget. And then we spend so much time turning ourselves inside out over a half cent or a penny or two cents or what. So I'm aware of those dollars matter the most in this climate that is really unstable. So that's what we're trying to get at tonight. And even as I looked at all these options and talk to others and talk to school board members and community members, it's just hard to figure out what is the right thing to do. So that's what we're striving to do tonight. And all in good faith and good will with each other. As we go forward. So I just want to make sure that the community is aware of that. Thank you for the comments. Vice Mayor. Yeah, I think the word that you've heard from both Lutty and from Mary Beth, that's pretty key in my mind is balance. That's balancing the needs of everybody in our communities, balancing the needs of the taxpayers, the schools and the general government. And we have a lot of overlap in all of those three areas. They're not independent silos, one from the other, you know, whether you're a parent whose children have already been through schools, you still care about them, whether you're, you know, a librarian who also cares for those same schools, you're a general government employee. There's just so much overlap that It's stressful to think of them as independent silos. We're really trying to address a balance of all needs for all people who live in the community. And this, as has been mentioned, number of times and ways. But we do have an increasing budget, six to seven percent increase in budget. Super healthy, really positive things are happening there. But when we did have this bump in the road of a decreased revenue projection, you know, that's time for a balance of sharing the load of that as well. And so from my perspective, I think that we strike a balance between maybe we don't get to two and a half cent tax rate reduction for the resident, but they still get, you know, enough that it's noticeable in their tax bill in a positive way. And we ask for some reductions in general government and some reductions in schools so that all three are taking equal balanced approach and providing kind of a win in some way, shape or form. So I think that's gonna be pretty key. And I really promote the idea of taking some action to balance those three out in reduce and all those areas reduce your your tax payer homeowner burden We've talked about how many homeowners are cost burdened in the city I I think the numbers are 30% and 40% or next to me 20% single family homeowners, cost burden, meaning they spend more than a third of their income on housing and even higher for apartment residents. So for those who this may not seem like very much money, that's fantastic. I'm glad that you're in that position, but we also have to think of those who are cost burden. And you know, that's requiring us to look really hard at general government side. I don't think anybody wants to cut anywhere but that just is the economic reality of where we are right now. So I am of the opinion that we should distribute the load between all three perspectives. Thank you. It's down. Thank you Mrs. Scott and Mayor Hardy. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Scott and Mayor Hardy. And of course, I agree with with the balance. You know, I think I'd be remiss if I just didn't put it out there that, you know, many know that I'm a former school board chair, also a parent with kids currently in the school system. You know, one of the things I think some on City Council express, you know, we received a lot of feedback from parents. And I just wanted to sort of, I won't take too much of your time, but I sort of like we're writing up some points for both, but for both the schools and general government. I think where the schools are coming from, they came in at I think at 9% budget growth in December. And then they cut that down to coming at guidance at 5.9. So they feel like they did what they were supposed to do. And now I think they feel a little stretched with that there's not a lot of time and I know Mayor Hardy and I've talked about this a lot of time for them to discuss this publicly now that we're contemplating, you know, cutting the tax rate and so that's I think a frustration among the schools and you know there is over the past couple years the schools have had sort of have had some last minute cuts so I think for some of those on the school board, they feel like this is, some use a term groundhog day. So I think that's some of the frustration coming from them. And, you know, at $200 difference, you know, a 0.5% tax decrease and a 2.5% is a difference of $200 annually. I agree with Ms. Hiscock that, you know, we have a high tax rate. There are people who are cost burdened. You know, and then I think you see the other side where the school failments are saying that's $200 annually. So I see both sides of it. But the schools are growing, right? We're going to, they're going to see over 150 more students next year. They're going to have about 6% growth, which sort of falls in line with their 5.9 budget growth. And they have a new superintendent coming in. And I could understand why they would be, it's a frustrating time to be going through this sort of conversation when you're bringing in new super 10, I think that person's gonna be announced next week. So that's just the school sign. Now the city side, our meals and tax revenues are flat. We thought we'd see more of a bump when whole foods open, we did not, so that's concerning. I always look to our experts, our C CFO, Kirim Bawa and our city manager Mr. Shields and they're concerned and that makes me concerned. Thank you Mr. Shields for giving those couple options to cut. You know well I know we'll probably discuss those cuts in a minute but I do appreciate those options and but I am you know cognizant you know learning learning my role as a city council person hearing from members of the community. I understand that we do have the highest tax rate in Northern Virginia and it is a burden. And I also know that federal employees in our city are losing their jobs. So, and next year could be worse in terms of the economic outlook. So, you know, I guess this is all just to say that I'm trying to look at both sides. I'm conflicted, but I do appreciate all of us talking together and trying to reach some sort of middle ground as we talk through this. So thank you. Ms. Plain. I'll go next and I think really just echo my colleagues' comments about a decision that we're all struggling with because we do take seriously all the concerns we hear across the community and want to be responsive and want to make sure that for both the general government and the schools when we talk about being people first organizations that we really demonstrate that in the actions that we take both in terms of our school employees and also our general government employees, but wanting to really make sure that we are responsive to what was again sort of a top concern that we saw recently in the community survey of, you know, tax rates being on people's minds and the tax burden being on people's minds. And so, you know, I think we started this with the two and a half cent cut in mind, really to say that we were recognizing that the budget needed to grow, that we needed to respond to the growth that our schools are experiencing, but that we also need to keep in mind, you know, that $400 or $500 over the tax rate. The tax increases that people have seen year over year is something that we need to keep in mind with, you know, what that means is out of pocket costs for people. Obviously, when we got the quarter three projections and saw the $1.2 million shortfall that we were looking at. I don't think that any of us were digging in on the continuation of a two and a half cent reduction. What I think, you know, we, and what I took away from our budget and finance meeting at that point in time was that we were going to look at, you know, revenues and where we could potentially make up some of that $1.2 million with, you know, lessening the tax rate cut, but still trying to lessen it from the $1.21 given that it would still be an overall tax increase to people looking at the personal property tax and then also looking at expenditures on the school side and the general government side. And I will give my appreciation to both sides for undertaking that exercise into Mr. Shields and Ms. Bawa in particular for coming forward with concrete ideas about what it is that they might be able to look at in terms of expenditures. We wouldn't make to help kind of contribute to that $1.2 million shortfall. I think on the school side, you know, I like to feel as though I'm making informed decisions and it's been a little bit more difficult just because the $600,000 was sort of put out there into the community and I think that the response that we got and I don't know if we've gotten privately any more sort of granular information was that making the cut would mean that we are not sort of honoring the collective bargaining agreement that we are seeking to reduce special education or security in the schools or that we don't want to fund, you know, the increased teachers that we know we need from the growth that we have been projecting. And I think that, you know, those are things that we obviously want to avoid, but I feel like I have a lack of information as a decision-maker in terms of what anything between zero fully fund everything and just increase the real estate tax revenue means and $600,000. And that there wasn't as much as a dialogue that I would have hoped for in terms of having more information, you know, here to really try to strike that appropriate balance. And so I'm not in any way looking to do damage to the school budget. The school budget is obviously growing. Like many others, have a child in the schools and have committed to the school success and want the superintendent to arrive know, positive environment and a harmonious city, but sort of feel like I'm left without the information that I need to even land at should this be, you know, $300,000 that we're sharing or should this be, you know, $160,000 that we're sharing because I have not sort of had an opportunity to engage or to see the school board like engage in some of that back and forth. And part of that is timing and part of that is just sort of the way that the presentation is kind of played out maybe because of timing. And obviously, you know, you never want to negotiate against yourself either. And so I do feel like we're in a difficult position because of some of that. You know I'm not looking for two and a half set cut but it both endorking in the 2023 election like I said in the community survey that we just saw, and then keeping in mind federal, the effects of federal changes and federal job cuts that I don't think it's just for people who are losing jobs, but also people who took voluntary earlier retirement and those people, for example, are not gonna have the same earnings. They're not going to. This hits all of us too. Thank you. I mean, I think people's careers are cut short. And, you know, they don't have the incomes they thought they had. They're savings are affected in the way that they didn't anticipate. And they don't have the same level of discretionary spending. And I say this, you know, not because of my personal adherence as a federal worker, but even just in the company of a number of federal workers. And hearing them talk about, you know, taking pensionists before their age 50, living on annuities, not having retirement savings. Those are people in our community. And just the way thing to not be responsive to that sort of like tax burden at that moment, it would be also a disservice at large. So thanks. Thank you, miss one. Comments this way. Questions? Comments? Mr. Schider. Yeah, so having lived through some tough times in the past, each one has its own challenges and has been laid out very clearly this one certainly does. And let's first create the context in which we're operating. First of all, an administration in Washington that seems to delight in damaging both individuals, programs, agencies that serve people in the United States and around the world in an inexcusable and incompetent and inhumane fashion. But we have to deal with that reality right now in this budget and hopefully things will change for the better. But right now we have to deal with that reality. The second reality we have to deal with is state of Virginia has long lived off of. And I mean that very clearly as long lived off Northern Virginia. The question is, is the state now going to come forward in our hour of need to truly support us so far? Haven't seen much evidence of that. So it now is left to us to do our very best to find the balance that other council members have talked about. I've looked at every letter, read every letter, every email that's come in and I appreciate so much the quality of commentary that we get from our citizens. So a couple things from prior circumstances and this one. The first of all, in my view, if the schools fail, the city fails. And it's that direct and that clear. And even the perception is created that we're not fully supporting our schools in a responsible manner, considering everything else, that can do its own damage. Secondly, the schools are confronting the most fundamental of all challenges, which has increased numbers of students. And frankly, some of that is the result of development decisions that have been made over the past 20 years to so to say that development has been an unmixed blessing is just simply inaccurate. The regrettable factor is that we're now both facing infrastructure and school costs relating to that development at the very time when our citizens are most stretched and stressed for the reasons previously noted. But going back to my view, so to get down to it, I don't think a $600,000 cut to the schools is something that our community supports. I've read email after email, commentary after commentary. And I'm just simply not willing to go that far. I think calling on the schools to look at their budget again, to come through it again, to come up with perhaps $300,000 in savings as the city has would be a very good positive development. But I will not under any circumstances cut the schools in a way that will either in reality or create the perception that our schools can be allowed to deteriorate in any way, shape or form. So for me, that's number one. And number two, I even talked about some numbers to get us started to, hopefully, what will be a balanced and final result after the next couple of weeks. I appreciate the proposal put forward by the city. I'm not appreciative of the cut to public safety that a so-called pause would be. That phrase pause has been used all too often to mean termination. So I don't have any idea. I don't assume that that's what's intended here, but I have a little bit of difficulty with that, and I would call on the city manager to take another look at budget to look at other elements of overhead that are not directly programmatic in the way that that so-called pause would be to the red light running camera. So those are my initial comments right now. Certainly agree with the notion of balance. Fully understand the circumstances that we're in. We've, as a city, have prevailed under challenges in the past. And I'm convinced with the full support of our community. And with all our great input that we'll do it again. And I have no doubt that this council will find a way to do that. But for me, the proposed cut to the school was too much. I think the citizens have said it's too much, but they're willing to look at some reduction. And I think that's a good idea and likewise for the city. So I think we can get a cent in the tax array. I'm hopeful for that beyond that. It will be difficult to see how we can do that responsibly, particularly considering my view on the absolute centrality of maintaining the quality of our schools, not only for the benefit of the schools, but for the benefit of the entire community. Finally, I think just as we did during the pandemic, I think we ought to look at some tax deferrals or delays that might make it more palatable for those in particular need as a result of the incompetent and inhumane actions by the current administration in Washington. Thank you. I'll keep it brief. I did want to echo some of my colleagues comments. I've gotten some emails this past week asking for us to fully fund the schools and to not defund the schools. And I just wanted to clarify, especially with some of that rhetoric that's going around that there is no interest on City Council to defund the schools and that we are fully intended to fund the schools. What we were asking for especially when looking at this budget shortfall was are there any efficiencies that could be found. And to Aaron's point, you know, we don't have full information. And so, rather than jumping to, we're going to increase class sizes. You know, we don't have full information. And so rather than jumping to, we're going to increase class sizes. We actually received an email saying, are there efficiencies in reviewing non-essential contracts or deferring initiatives or technology upgrades? Or are there any sort of options for discretionary spending or exploring creative revenue opportunities? And so that's I think what we were looking for, not jumping to cutting special education funding or removing security measures or anything else from the school. And so at least from the general government side, we went through this last year, we were trying to see if there was some money that we could Cut from the budgets. We were looking at the library. We were looking at HR software We're going through all these different things and trying to look at every $10,000 to see if we could get up to the to the amount for a small tax cut and so I think that's what the intent was and what the interest was from City Council, at least from my perspective. But we certainly want to make sure that our teachers are supported and that our schools are supported and have the resources they need. Just a quick thought on the red light camera. I did the calculations. um it's catching six to seven people per day running red lights in our city. And so when we think about that compared to an officer, you know, that investment is like not that much to catch people that are literally blowing through red lights that are causing a new sense in our city. And so I do think that that is something that's important to change behavior and I see that as an investment as Snyder mentioned. But I also do understand if staff wants to reevaluate that, I would like to make sure that that program does mean stay in the city and whether it goes to a different intersection, but I don't want to lose that program altogether. I do think that that is something that's really important. So if pausing it means that we can have more leverage in contract negotiations and that would be something I'm supportive of and I do trust staff but I want to make sure that this is not something that ends up getting lost I guess in future years and that we are we are committed to this. Let's talk about the red light cameras 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. and killed in Arlington. And so that's the other piece that worries me about the red light cameras is just the pedestrian, as we have more and more people walking, the weather's beautiful, more and more people are walking. That's the other thing that really scares me is people blowing through red lights and hitting the pedestrian. But Mr. Shilds, what? Do we have any ability to increase the ticket fee for people who run red lights? I believe we do, yes. I mean, would that be an option? To reduce the ticket fee? No, to increase it. To increase it. I think we're at the state max. Oh, we are at the state max. OK, because that was one of the things I was wondering if we could increase it. Maybe that would help offset some of that. Yeah, I'm missing your question. Why would I decrease it? Yeah, I was going to be my next question. Any other? Yes. It's been observed by Mr. Snyder, I think many times and others, that we are very hamstrung in how we operate these programs by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia. That is a difficulty. The contracting of this and moving them to new locations is a very labor intensive process. And so that's part of the consideration as well. Thank you. Could we put the options up on the screen? Because I guess we're starting to talk details. But I guess I think everyone's had a chance to speak. So one other kind of comment as we continue this deliberation, I think how we, the tenor and how we deal with the challenges ahead matters a lot. And I think we have the opportunity to really set a good example because I know Mary Beth tends to be more optimistic. I'm more of a pessimist on what's to come. I think this is beginning of probably pretty rough times for the region, given the economic indicators we're seeing. I really hope that spirit of partnership and problem solving, that is measured and anchored in facts is really important in how we collaborate and show up for the community. I think we certainly can be an example compared to where the rest of the nation is. I think Justin talked about wanting more about, wanting more concrete and realistic ideas with numbers. And so I appreciate why and caring for you, putting those up there for us stare at. We don't like any of these given, especially things like traffic cameras. The number one thing we hear from the community is about transportation safety. So the idea of eliminating that, albeit I think it's, you know, per the recommendation of our police chief, gives us heartburn because of what we hear from the community. So that's not an option that we love. And so we can talk through, you know, whether it's a pause, whether it's a move, whether it's renegotiative contracts. But I just want to make sure that I emphasize kind of how we deal with these challenges with each other and with our partners in the schools matters a lot because I do think that when we talk about wanting both revenue and expense levers and realistic numbers, not the super scary ones that are the doomsday scenarios. Those are levers we frankly may need again in six months, three months next year definitely. And I think it is really good exercise now for us to go through that and think about what leaner budgets look like. I feel like the Debbie Downer, sorry to use your name Debbie, but I've said in the past that it is unrealistic to have 8% budgets, you know, grow indefinitely. I think regular budgets are 3% and so going from the 7% budget to maybe a 5% budget to the 3% budget next year seems a lot more tenable than swinging things back and forth. Our job up here is to find that balance in the community. Our job is also to be forward looking and think about the needs beyond what's in front of us immediately. So. What the and Mr. Schilds maybe also about the watch night. What do you think the public reaction would be to cutting that event? So we have not gotten, you know, this is probably the first time that this has been discussed publicly. We've not reached out to community to inform them of that. So we need to do that and to hear from community on that. This is a staff proposal at this point. My only thought on that is I know it's a real burden for our burden for our staff it's a lot of work and I I can only imagine how frustrating is that the staff puts in all this work and then it rains or whatever and no one comes I get that but I do think there is something to be said for tradition we don't have the fourth of July fireworks anymore because of the baseball construction to mess up there at Meridian. So I'm not really sure about that one, because I just don't know. That's a very visible thing. Something that I think some of the good portion of the community looks forward to, especially families with younger kids, something to do with their younger kids on New Year's. But again, I also once again, I see the other side too that that's a lot of work for our staff and you know, if it's a bad night at frustrating because we don't have the turnout. So that's what I was just more curious about. I was surprised to see it on your list because I thought it was always one of those like very traditional things in Falls Church. So you're not proposing canceling Memorial Day. So that was. Oh, yes. For a watch night, I also had a question on, do the community groups, so the locations that are not the Broad Street or sort of Perk Avenue locations, do they rely on city funding, or they just sort of separate sponsors for the locations that, you know, I'm just envisioning whether there might be some pieces of watch night that might persist, even if the city wasn't making that $35,000 commitment and staff time and resources to watch night. And I just didn't know the arrangement. Yeah, like the Presbyterian Church is all volunteer. Like, that's all church members or neighbors that come and staff everything that happens there and fun stuff. I know the Presbyterian Church is all volunteer. That's all church members or neighbors that come and staff everything that happens there and funds that. I believe the book, a lot of the cost is for fire and police and rerouting around that. I mean, why I can give you those details, but I can tell you the church is all volunteer. Yeah, no, no. And I know from being there and from volunteering there, but the like the band, for example, and you know, they sometimes have sponsorships listed. And I don't know if those are sponsors that sponsor the whole event and then a portion of the sponsorship money like goes to those satellite locations for Watch Night, so to speak, or if they're just stand alone, but happening at the same time under the umbrella of watch night and the city funding is all going towards like that main stage and the mechanical bowl and those things. So I think for your next work session we'll have a breakout of about 35,000 and who it goes to and so the council can see that. Because one thing also put out. I was going to I think that challenges, you know, Barb Kram was her brainchild and idea and she ran it by force of personality for so long that it kept growing and growing and growing and, you know, that was a huge asset to the community that was a minimal cost at the time that she successfully cajoled all the volunteers and all of her partners in the community to provide services. So that was a big shift and a huge loss in a lot of ways when she passed. And you know we are losing the Tiner Hill music festival this year. Well just for a year from according to Mr. Henderson right? Hopefully it's true's true. One thing I was gonna say on timing, so it looks like our school board number is no longer here, but I did watch their meeting and I talked to them as well. I really, they don't have another public meeting scheduled before they are set to adopt their budget on May 14th. So I'm sensitive to that. I know we normally hash out a lot more details at markup, but I guess I would ask council up here that to the extent that we can try to give more clear direction, that would then give our school board colleagues two weeks advertised a special meeting should they need to before May 14th. So they can talk through more specific and realistic ideas. So because I would ask if we can get to consensus on where, I've heard everyone say the word balance, but let's get more specific as possible before we get to mark up so that we give our partners some more time to work this through. Well, Mayor, if you maybe one thing we could talk about before we talk about actual tax rates is the car tax, because that's what I know that you and I had talked in you would prefer not to make that increase this go around because you'd like to kind of keep that in our back pocket if things get worse. I think so, but that's just. No, I just think we, because that makes a difference what we do with the car tax, I think, right? Yeah, I just think we're gonna need a lot more levers in the coming year. And regarding that personal property tax, we don't even know if next year, due to the international situation, if car prices will go up and we'll have to reduce the car tax, there's a lot, I just, there's a lot of volatility there. And I feel like our, it, it, it's probably better to keep it flat this year, because we just don't know what's's gonna happen. And if we don't need that chunk of money right now, we should let it sit as is and see what happens with international markets. I think last time it was used cars that were so much more expensive because new cars were hard to get. That's right. And that's what made us reduce the rate has popped up a little bit because that. Okay. made us reduce the rate has popped up down a little bit because of that. OK. So we talked briefly on cameras. I mean, should we just do a straw poll on giving us, can we go to the page with the three levers that not yet are not ready? More discussion? OK. But these three. Yeah. Maybe Matthew have thought about the CPEDS? Well, it's more of, it's an overall thing, but the CPEDS position is one where the work still needs to be done. So it will need to be divided up by my other people. And that's a, it's a tricky thing sometimes because we know, there's not a lot of work and we want to build up those departments. But if there's a way to, I mean, this position was created by merging departments that were not under one leader. So maybe there is there a way to think about doing it differently as part of the reorganization with having dep to dep two deputy managers, is there a way to do that that is more efficient, still gets a lot of the work done? And you mentioned people on staff that could be pulled in to do some of that work, but that's just, it's a tricky one because we all value the work of economic development and community planning. So I will just note it, I think the position is about six years old. That's when we made the reorganization that created this position. And so it will require people to step up in new ways. There's no question about that. I am very grateful for Andy Young's leadership. He's, I think he's an advocate for this position. He knows that this position is very useful to the organization, but he has also stepped up and I think has been very helpful to the Ford Division Chiefs, as we've tried to organize and do the coordination between those four different functions. And so I'm grateful to him for what he's been doing and to all these departments, or the City Council spends a lot of time with these departments. And we know that this is a function of the city that is very forward focused and it's really important particularly when you're going into difficult times to have that strong forward focus and our planning shop or economic development shop in particular are really important for the organization that way. I'm not answering your question directly. You know, every reduction always has consequence. Yeah, we have put this one forward because it is one that we think we could we could work through some of those consequences and still produce good outcomes. I have an overall thought just tying up what we've just talked about. So being the optimist, being a person who never found a tax increase that I didn't love for some reason. I don't know how I became that person. Because the proposals you've put out as things that could be cut, all of us have a reason why we think, oh, I don't know about that. We need those. So the other part of the balance is the taxes that people are paying are for services they're getting. It's not like they're making a donation of an extra $300 just to be kind. They're paying for services they're getting or services that we have determined that they need and that fits for the whole budget. So I'll start and to say what I'd like to see is a half cent reduction in the tax rate and no increase in the property tax rate. I think if we, one of the other concerns I have is if we drop the tax rate this year and then assessments go down, then we're going to have to raise it a lot next year. And if we drop it half a cent, then we are smoothing it out a little bit so that if there are problems next year, any increase we have to give is not so high. So that's, that be my starting point. I'd like to have a half cent tax reduction and no increase in the personal property tax. This has got. Yeah, I think when I looked at that chart of where we started in December to no change, I still really feel like that it's important to have a balance between all three that everybody has a piece of the pie, a piece of the solution to, you know, to address making some tough decisions in general government and in school and less of a tax increase for our residents. I guess I also looked across the region and I'm looking at what the salary increases are both for general government and teachers across Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudness and Outlier, Loudness Data Centers, so they're funding everything. And we are still, I believe, a solid percentage ahead on both general government staff increases and teacher staff increases. I think that's really positive. I fully support making sure that we are competitive salary-wise, that we can retain and recruit the best talent. There are lots of comments about our talented teachers and staff and spent the last 25 years supporting those talented teachers and staff and I believe in them as well. But we also have talented general government staff. And I think that we are demonstrating by holding our increases higher than the rest of the region and keeping our class sizes lower than the rest of the region that we are demonstrating how important our staff is, how important schools are, and how important our residents are, and we're acknowledging the financial challenges. So I'm looking at that chart like dead middle, which I feel like is a good compromise. That's one and a half cent cut. So that's a $285,000 share that the general government would need to shave and then the schools would as well. And then you can see where it keeps your tax increase the average tax increase closer to 500. We talked about 400 in December. 500 is a you know a 25% increase over what we've told the public and maybe an absolute dollars it it doesn't feel like much, but as a percentage, the year over year over year, that's still a, it adds up to many people who have tax bills over $20,000 a year. So that just feels instinctively like a balanced approach to me. So that's where I stand today. Okay, thank you. Those down. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I mean, my preference would be the 0.5 cent cut so that, you know, and as I try to explain to community members, it was understandable as a meeting with some PTA folks this morning. And I don't think they understood that whatever school cuts, whatever the schools have to cut, we have to cut on the city side. I know that for some reason that narrative is not out there. And so, you know, I'm also cognizant of not just cutting not wanting to cut the schools, but not wanting to cut the city either. you know i think i think mister shield i mean the red light cameras tough because that's a complicated one because of chief hard, you know, recommending we don't have that. But look, if you look at the position, we just talked about C-Peds and all that. I want to support Wyatt and his organization. And so, you know, if that's a very important position, I feel, you know, and if we don't feel it, who knows if we'll ever be able to fill it again, if we put it on pause, it may never come back. So it's not just the funding to fund, fully from the schools that's wanting to fully fund our city to, our general government as well. That said, I do understand the tax burden and everything that our residents, with the different fees and all of that. So, I was looking, so the one-cent cut, so this is right between Ms. Connelly and Ms. Hiscock. So one cent cut without the car fee, without the car, I'm sorry, without the car tax increase scheme is $577 increase for homeowners and it would be a cut of $127,000 for the schools and for the city. might be be bearable, 127 for each for the school and the city. And again, I know that schools, they often don't want us to know exactly how they're spending their money. But it is hard for us to make that call, because we're not really sure. They haven't had those public meetings since all this came out. But so I guess that would be, you know, I would say between a 0.5% and a 1% would be where I'm kind of at right now. Those thoughts? I guess I'll jump in to say that I'm not wedded to this, but I fall more in the one-and-a-half-set camp. I think picking up on Ms. Bawa and Mr. Shields is sort of, we need to be in the mindset of finding places in the organization now that we are willing to sort of make these cuts and anticipation of places where we may further need to think about this in terms of how the budget continues to evolve. And so while I also agree with Ms. Connelly's comments that it's frustrating to be saying, can you each side find $285,000? At the same time, it feels important to have those conversations and think about setting us up, not only this budget cycle, but next budget cycle, and it still, I think, comes out to about a 4.2% increase for real estate assessed value at that 1. 195 level if I calculated it properly earlier. CPIs at three and a half I think right now, which is about CPI. Other thoughts on options? Is Unreal? We don't have to make a decision tonight. It just would be nice to be able to signal something to the school board. What I would propose is that it would be nice to see some, I mean, just how, how, why it has broken down here are the, the different options that we have for, for these, these cuts and, and what would be on the table. I would like to see from the school side, what 1.5 cent, 1 cent or, I guess, the half cent looks like to them, but actually looking beyond increasing class sizes, if they're actually, if they could look to see if there are efficiencies or I don't know, maybe, I've heard that maybe some people have Apple watches, maybe they don't have to replace the Apple watches, that's not true. Okay, so then maybe that's just, that's not true. That's an old drama. Okay. So if there are efficiencies that exist, where there could be a 1.5 cut or the 1 cent cut, that would be something or leaving it at half cent, I would just like to have that discussion over the next couple weeks. And maybe that does involve the school board meeting again but I think it would be nice to have a little bit more of a discussion here especially now that we've had this 1.2 million dollar wrench thrown in so late into the game I'd like to see a little bit more discussions and more options before we have to make a final vote. Okay? If that's... I think everyone has gone. Yeah, as I said before, I think I'm comfortable looking at one cent. If we can get to 1.5 cents, great. I think we just have to call on our managers to come up with... with cuts that don't go deep into fundamental services. And if it doesn't work, it just doesn't work. At that point, we reconsider, but I think a good balance is in that area. And what are we talking about a total budget here of $130 million? I'm $30 million and we ought to be able to find savings without cutting into important programs in either the schools or the city. And I would call on our manager so I give us some help in that area and the schools of course help us get there. I don't know how we get the two cents or two and a half cents at this point. But it seems to me we ought to be able to balance things at one center one and a half cents. So that's kind of my view with things right now. Thank you. A question for why and Karen, how much would our budget be growing from last year at a 1.5 cent cut. Do we have that number? Because it was like a 6.5 and 7 percent growth even with the 2.5 cent cut so how much would it be growing with them? We could probably do that and get that to you in about five minutes. Okay. I think I'm in where we stand. As Dave said, in $130 million budget, I feel like we should be able to find 570 and share in that. And I do think that we've all said it, but we do need these levers later on. And so beyond the three that you've shared with us why, I want to kind of know what's below the line, because I want us to be prepared for that scenario. Should we need to do things beyond traffic cameras and watch night and the CPEDS director? And so I think that's an important exercise for the entire city government to go through and be prepared. This year? This year. I mean, yeah, I mean, yes. In talking to counterparts in the regions, many people are prepared to revisit budgets at the end of the summer. Because I think a lot of people on administrative leave, their salaries actually will stop in the fall. And so if we're worried about drop-off and discretionary spending now, it probably will get worse by the fall. So I think, again, nobody likes the late change with the revenue forecast. But I really do think we take the heart that we might have more of this to come. And as we get the Q4 data and the Fisklear, like we may need more of these levers. I don't want us to think like, oh, we're done now. We're gonna end up at whatever. that we might have more of this to come. And as we get Q4 data and the fiscal year, like we may need more of these levers. I don't want us to think like, oh, we're done now. We're going to end up at whatever. Like it may be a very unpopular thing to do. But I think that is our reality that we're dealing with right now. I do think we are positioned better than many, but it won't be easy on us either. Do we want to talk about the specific, like do we want to do this role pull to give you a little more direction why on the three options? Because I do, I heard discomfort, discomfort with those options. No, we'd like these, but I feel like it'd be important for you to signal, especially again in the spirit of like trying to partner and give clear direction to the departments on what is palatable for us. Justine. I, after just looking at the fact that for the, this is on our end with the red light camera, that we are ticketing six to seven people per day, every single day on weekends and holidays. I do, it puts a pit in my stomach about defunding that. And so the more I think about it, the more un-dissies I feel with that. So if we do go with a certain cut or go in a certain direction, I might want to see more options before doing so. Okay, so on that one, does anyone want red light cameras cut? Okay, why you're not getting up, sorry. I'm okay with cutting them, but I see I'm in the minority. So I'm okay with keeping them to. Yeah, I mean, I think this is the problem, right? Like it's a difficult exercise. The chief came to us even before our having this conversation saying if there was something, you know, to go, this is something that I'm thinking not to carry over into this new year to use it as time to figure out where to best deploy it. So, you know, like we're having now the conversation, right, that the school is struggling with, which is the, what do you do if you have to do anything, but we're gonna need to do something. And so, I guess the question I'm referring more than anything else. Yeah, the question I would have for the chief is, for the, because I know the resource part of it is intensive, We have to review all the tapes per Virginia law, which makes it expensive for us to run that program. I guess question is one, could those resources be deployed to traffic enforcement? So is it I don't know much time we spend for a technology? Yeah I don't know. There's no way that a person needs officer would be able to get six to seven tickets per day for red light running even on weekends and holidays. So I just in terms of efficiencies like here you which is why we've always been fans of photo enforcement right. But I do you know when you have the chief tell us hey this is a recommendation I have I think we also take that to heart. So I'm trying to balance like I more information, I think is what you're hearing on eliminating this. Would he recommend renegotiating contracts? Would that be more efficient? Is that possible too? Would those resources be used for other things, like traffic enforcement, and could we have the same impact? Or three, is there another intersection that would benefit from this? And could the money be applied elsewhere that's higher risk data informed, higher risk, more red light running that would actually help. So more information, I don't hear appetite to just automatically cut based on the quick straw poll. Is that fair? I think that's fair and Ms. Underhill, thank you for quantifying it. I didn't, I guess I missed that or didn't read or didn't, you know, catch it, but the six a day, that's significant to me. You know, again, I'm concerned about God forbid a pedestrian's hit. That's my biggest concern. And so as we have, as our population grows and we have more people walking, it's just, it, you know, it's just counterintuitive. Everything I heard on the campaign trail was, we need more enforcement. You know, so I, but on the other hand, I'm a person that likes to follow staff's recommendation. So, it's very tough for me to, on this one's very tough. Okay. Can we bring back the slide with why it's options, please? Okay, so we talked red light camera, the CPEDS director, BaconC. How do people feel about that? Go ahead, sorry, I was going as well, so didn't mean to interrupt. You know, we had such a unique situation and having Mr. Schneider in this role. He was a unique, very well respected regional economic development person who had experience in all of these areas. And this isn't how we had this organization structured prior to his tenure. And we benefited greatly from that. I think you can see that in all the creative ways the city has grown and developed under his watch. And I think it's incredibly important to continue to focus on the next wave of economic development. But it may be a different type of economic development than we saw under Jim. We don't have that 10 acre site. We don't have this similar need. And so we've brought in Jenny and Andy into new roles over the last year and a bit, which we encourage, we as a council encouraged along the way. We took many, many years to make that decision as well. And I think it's shown in multiple ways how they've increased throughput and efficiencies and the way they're thinking about process and procedures has been excellent. And I think as those processes and procedures continue to improve, that will give them more space to be taking on some of the roles that perhaps Jim may have had in the past as well. So I think it's a shift in an organization change as hard. We've had great successes with that role, but we also have two new roles in deputy city managers that we didn't have identified the way we did before. So you know the challenge of going to three items and saying yes I support cutting that makes it sound it's such a binary statement, but you know when when they are proposed back to us by staff, I am listening as well. They're not to say they're not challenges associated with any cuts because there are, but we did add two new roles and we'd be removing one role in the overarching administrative administration of the city. So I guess that's what I wanted to add some context and color to that as well. Thank you. So Dave. Thanks Madam Mayor. I can live with this cut. I think we have an EDA, we have an EDO, and we have deputy managers. And we've opted, I think, no one's talked about significantly reducing the proposed compensation And we're just simply going to have to ask more of Everyone and do our best to compensate at a level which is I think probably better than a lot of other jurisdictions. So This one I just think you know, maybe sometime we can bring it back. But right now, I'm not convinced that it's essential. And I do think if we're going to ask the schools to make similar cuts, then I think we have to show some leadership in what we do. So I'm willing to let it go. And since we haven't reached it yet, I'm willing to eliminate watch night event. Maybe we can, community might be willing to raise money. People might be willing to contribute, if it's important enough. But you know, these are tough times and we have to make those kinds of decisions. And I think it's important for us to lead the way and to accordingly be more persuasive with the school board. So I'm fine to eliminate both the vacancy and the watch night event. Okay, so on eliminating the CPEDS vace director, who was for that? Okay, why that's all of us on that one. Watch Knight. Who is for eliminating that? I think that's six and a half. Seven. I think I'll just say I think there there will be community comment about that because I think from some of the local businesses when it's a good night it's a really good night it's a really good economic development driver but you just can't rely on it because of the weather because I mean I've been've been out there in the tentary weather for hours and hours, it's cold and it's not really that fun after a while, but it is fun when you get to midnight. So I think some local business to rely on it. I think, yeah, churches may want to do their own thing. It's the public safety part and the maintenance and the teams that are out there, public works, putting up barriers, putting up tents, just keeping people safe. If anything's happening downtown on New Year's Eve, there's gonna have to be staff there because people will be walking around. But you know what, the State Theater will still have something. Claren Don's will still have something. The restaurants will all have something. And maybe that's an opportunity for EDO staff to work with communities. Right. Small businesses to reimagine. Right. To reimagine. So maybe it's just it's time to reimagine and not have this in our budget. But to reimagine how it actually happens. But again, the thing is we all know if there are sidewalk needs if if there are other needs, there will have to be staff there. So even if the business is reimagined, it will not be a zero for staff because they need for some kind of staff to help out. So yeah, I mean any holiday would require the same public staffing, but not shutting down intersection makes a tremendous difference in cost. Okay, so if I did my math right, that gets us to 245, which is close to 285, right? And again, why? I do think that there needs to be four, five, and six on that list. We may not take them, but I do think we should start staring at them. So you heard a suggestion from John Ward, $7,000 on the wreck. Renewable energy wrecks. He offered that up. don't do it early on because there is some doubt as to the quality of the wrecks that are purchased and whether they actually save Chesapeake Bay from phosphorus and nitrogen. So it's not a full't know if you can see the report. I don't know if you can see the report. I don't know if you can see the report. I don't be recognized by the EPA for that. And my understanding also was that the wrecks were higher quality. I think when Andy purchased those maybe a year and a half ago, we did get actual stronger renewal. I'm just saying we don't need to debate all the details of it. I'm just saying we had a very knowledgeable public comment with other suggestions that there might be other ways to address some of these that come up. So I'm not trying to say, Andy, you didn't purchase quality rec slash here. I think the earlier point of like this gets us close and we kind of figure out the rest. I think that part part of the discussion spot on. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the bottom line. Yeah. So we'll on may may at your next meeting we'll have a few additional options and that will also wrap up some of these other markup items at that meeting as well. The CIP ones and the emergency assistance ones and there may be a couple others that Yeah, we'll need to be on the list. I think you for the emergency assistance we talked about that one of our work sessions as I think University across the board the reason that we are even contemplating these tax cuts is sensitivity to those for whom it's in a burden and Those many of those residents would also be the ones who burdened in these areas. So thank you for looking into that to date and her team. Okay. That's fair. Mm-hmm. Ms. Balla, I know we have a $500,000 emergency revenue fund in the budget contingency. That's right. Right. And that contingency is there just to help me think it through. It's there if the revenue doesn't go up as we project, we'll have something to fill in that gap. Do we have anything in there for like inflation or extra costs on things if the same prices go up? It's all coming out of that same fund. Not enough. That's our only contingency. That's our only contingency. And I think it would be a, it would be staff recommendation that the council, your final budget, maintain that contingency. It has been expressed from the day us. I think when we get together and are looking at numbers again in the fall, we're going to have a worse picture than what we're saying. Right. Do we know if the schools have a contingency? I don't know. We can find out. Okay. I think they had a central office staffing contingency. I remember. Remember, Mr. Dr. Gold had presented that to us. I remember. Yeah, I think they, well, I think they usually always, I think it's 400, I do think they do have some sort of, I forget what they call it, but I think it's like 450,000. I think. Don't quote me on that, but I hope you get to know. Or is that contingency? I guess the contingency in the general government budget also fills in gaps. If there are revenue gaps, I don't know. We'll just have to talk that one out. That's intended to be strictly a revenue gap contingency. What, you know, in the general government budget, when we make adjustments to a budget through the fiscal year, it's generally because of vacancies, vacancy savings. So that sort of functions as a contingency, like when things come up, usually that's how we solve problems. But that's not a line item in the budget. That's just an operating that's just a way that you're able to move money around and Plugging that's right and we know that over the years now that vacancy Number I think one thing that also happens in recessions is that vacancies shrink and Unless we have a firm hold on filling vacancies. That's But but our recruitment challenges, typically those challenges, kind of go away. And we get great candidates and we fill up all of our ranks. That has been the history and passed downturns. Another thing I just, I want to keep in mind as we think about where we're headed is. And over the years, I've heard school board members say this, is that the general government has that option to hold things vacant or not. But in the school situation, they need to have all their employees in August when the school year starts or have some opportunity for substitutes. But there's not really an option to say, well, we'll just hold that one and not hire someone until January. And that would be half your savings. So that's just a different function of those two budgets, right? I believe that's right. Yeah. I just want to point out they do have positions that are not teachers, so they're administrative positions. They can choose to hold somebody can see his frozen paws, you want to know. I mean, I'm just throwing. Yeah, yeah, they have more in their budget than just teachers So right, but buster I wish you need your buster I wish you need your custodians. So all of it is the operation There to get the operation done for the nine months at schools and session you mean 12 month mean 12 month employees correct right right I mean they do have a season staff that are not teachers okay I just want to circle back on you other questions yeah yes what is the budget growth so thank you for doing math on the fly you mean the general fun tax revenue growth Because the overall budget is a drop by 2.8%, and it will be a total drop. It'll become 132.4 million budget, which would be at 3.6% drop. And that is because of the CIP reduction and the capital use reduction. That's the overall. But in the general fund tax revenues after taking out a million, too, it'll be a 5.3% growth over fiscal year 25 adopted and net of the 500,000 contingency that set aside, it would be a 4.8% growth over last year. Thank you. That's with 1.2. Did you do it for any of the other options or just that one? This is just the change in the revenue. This is change in revenue. Any of these options actually yeah just solve the 1.2 million dollar issue. Okay so to wrap up I'd say I heard a majority for a 1.5-cent cut asking everyone to find 285. And then also a request for like levers, 45 and 6 potentially, to be ready for the future. And then I did not hear support for eliminating the red light camera and wanting more information from staff on that. Is that a decent summary? Yeah, I would prefer half a cent or one cent, but I think Ms. Colleen, I earn the minority on that. I think you're right about saying that the majority would like 1.5. Yeah. Okay. So hopefully that is helpful direction. I know we're still, we still have another markup session, but we wanted to give them the challenges to be able to give them. If that is very helpful, then I think we'll allow us to use that your markup session. There's efficiently as possible. OK. Anything else on budget? Justine, does this include say IP? Can I ask my CIP a question? So I just wanted to be clear. So the, in the budget Q&A, it mentioned adding back in the Aurora House solar, but that would be something we would discuss during the markup session next week. And we would have to take something out to fit that in. Is that correct? So it's in the CIP. So there's been discussion of reducing the playground equipment line item in the CIP. And so if that were done, then there would be money for the solar. So we're anticipating that's the change that the council is going to want to make. So that'll be one of the markup items and the others emergency assistance and there may be some others. If there are others that need to be on that list send me a note so that we can have them on the list. Everybody can look at them at your work session. Okay. Thank you. And the staff response on the playground equipment made sense to me in terms of, I mean, I think our main concern was crossmen and the proximity to Bayonacar and, you know, sort staff on where we are with, Keppley or Trail, and if it's out a year or if it's it, you know, but that all makes sense. And just a reminder, the $495,000 came from the Keppled Reserve. Okay. Yes, so it's not part of the operating budget gap discussion that we were talking about tonight. Yeah. Okay. Well, we still have a consent agenda. Looks like mainly just appointments. So we're ready to move off budget. Does anyone have things they want to take off consent or may I have a motion? I'm able to approve that consent agenda Second Call world please I think that was underhill in second Miss Conley yes, Miss Downs. Yes, Miss Flynn. Yes, Miss Shons, Hiscott. Yes, Mr. Snyder. Yes, Ms. Flynn. Yes, Ms. Shonshiscot. Yes, Mr. Snyder. Yes, Ms. Underhill. Yes, Mayor Hardy. Yes, motion carries 7 to 0. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to other business. I guess we already had our budget work session unless we will want to continue. Continue. Okay, I thought actually if folks don't mind, I don't know if you actually have a quorum for the mayor's meeting on Wednesday, so I thought we could tackle schedule really quickly. I think I'm in interviews and they think Mary Beth and Debbie are supporting home stretch that their breakfast may be others. So we may not actually have quorum for a Wednesday meeting. So if it's okay with council, can we run through the schedule now? I mean, it's only 10.30 the night is young. Exactly. So we'll go through a couple things really quickly on the May 5th work session. So you, council would hear the environmental sustainability councils any report. We'd have the final budget markup discussion. Council would review a draft resolution to create a solid waste task force with an August 2025 report deadline. The important thing to review there will be the scope of work for that study group. Consent preview of holiday lighting contract and then ahead to the May 12th regular meeting. Final consideration of the budget CIP property tax storm order rate sewer rate ordinances. The West Falls voluntary concessions would come back to you for your second reading. The solid waste task force resolution. The counter county fire services agreement. And then two consent items. And then May 19th looking at the bottom of the list because I think we'd probably have this, if not first on the agenda, maybe second. The Maple and Anadale Special Exception application for residential mix use building at Maple and Anadale. We'd have the Affordable Living Policy Complan Amendment, Crosswalk and Southwalk Design standards, spring budget amendment, and then a series of franchise agreements for Cox Verizon and RCN, and then a discussion of council's salary and salary ordinance and benefits, and then, so that's a pretty full work session. May 27th then we'll have we'll be joined by the CBC on the youth representatives recognition for their work. Aurora House will join for the annual report. We'll do an update on CIP and strategic priorities. We'll have a post briefing on the 2025 General Assembly session as for Council vote on the love sculpture design and then action on the new brick and sidewalk standard as an amendment to the streetscape standards. First reading on the budget amendment, the three franchise agreements, and then first reading on the council salary ordinance. Should I pause there any questions on those scheduling items? I don't think much just changed since last Wednesday of this looks. It's pretty, pretty steady. Okay. This does reflect the change in the meetings so then post Memorial Day we'd have a June 2nd work session we didn't invite the CACT and the ESC and that would be for the Smart Cities program update and presentation. We'd have a presentation by staff and by the program update and presentation. We'd have a presentation by staff and by the applicant for the 106 and 108 Least Street rezoning application from R1A to T zone. The Broad Washington easement vacation, I don't think that will take much time and And then consent preview for Versa Renewal and Body War and Camera Contract Approval. And we would have a discussion of the new state code provisions on subdivision and site plan approval process that was discussed briefly with the chair of the planning commission tonight. That goes in effect July 1st. It does. Okay. Do we have anything anything in flight that we then have to change or June 2nd give us enough time to change process to be compliant with the new state law. Assuming we have to comply because I know Dave's brought up in the past that a question whether our city charter would supersede it in some way. We don't need to solve it now, but from a scheduling perspective, that's just one question I have that if it goes in effect July 1st, understanding where things are in process, who do we have to get an opinion on on the charter, that sort of thing? We do have the, on the 27th, we have the General Assembly's post briefing. I think this is going to be an important part of that discussion as well so we look at it twice but this would be a time to have a good first up discussion of that. To do we have any site plans we don't have any subdivisions of do we have a site plan or anything in flight that? I need to check with staff on that. I don't know. OK. I know there are meetings that are happening internal with staff right now and just to review what we think this means. And so we'll share information from those internal meetings. Mayor Hardy, could I ask a quick question? Mr. Shields, the 106108 Lee Street Resonant Application that's a work session discussion, and then what happens after that? Where do we know? That's okay if we don't know, I just just curious. You know, I think that's just gonna be a difficult land use case. Yeah. Is my view of it? And so we, you know, the purpose of staff coming to councils to provide a professional review in terms of comp plan, what do your policies say about this? And then based on policy to have some counsel feedback on this application, and then we kind of take our direction from there. Okay, so we would hopefully decide that night how to proceed. That's right. Okay, thank you. You know, but a resounding process is one that is very much bound by state law and so you know, following policy is the key consideration or grounding all counsel judgments in policy is something that it will be very important in the land use case like this. Yeah, and I know several of us have already heard from many community members at Levant that street, so I have a feeling that we'll be hearing for more. But thank you. Okay. Keep going. Keep going through, Jen, or. keep going through Jen or? I mean, there is life after budget, I guess, but. Yeah, we do have, I think, you know, I think there's important policy things coming up and. I think we've been all peppering in with our vacation dates, but I guess I lost council that if you you've got known days that you're out or we'll be remote to start adding those in now so we can plan for For sending just staff Especially when we don't may not have quorum or can't have remote participation please send them to the City Clerk email address. We'll make sure they get noted. Thanks. Okay. Nothing else seems to have changed since we last looked at it Wednesday. We've not made major changes since the last review. One thing I was going to bring up Wednesday, had our mayor's meeting is I put a calendar reminder, a calendar to revisit whether we are going to have weekly separate mayor's meetings, because I think that was something that we discussed at the beginning of the year. And I said, let's commit to revisiting after the quarter. And so I wanted to throw that out for council. Again, should people have opinions? I mean, I think the way we've been doing it now, where possible, if we could find time in Monday night, has been nice, but having Wednesday on the calendar, that is still open to everybody on council to attend has also been a good balance. So that's my preference, but I'm here to be here from others. What if we had, like, if we're done the meeting by 10.30, we could have a 10-minute review of the agenda. And that would inspire us to get done by 10.30. And then not to come back Wednesday, I don't know. I don't know how often that happens, but I'm happy to not have a Wednesday meeting if we can all do it, but I think the principle I'm trying to live up to is keep this collaborative so that no one is surprised by what's on the agenda and that's worked well whether it happens in Monday night or happens Wednesday morning. Sometimes having some separation between Monday and Wednesday lets us kind of digest things and think through so keeping it flexible like that is fine with me. Get to it Monday night if we can if we can't do it Wednesday morning. Somewhere in the budget book it says we have 98 public meetings in a year and that's a lot of public meetings partly because we have those Monday and Wednesday meetings the more we can shrink that down, I think the better for everyone. But I agree, your spirit of transparency is admirable. So thank you. OK, so I'm hearing, keep it the way it is. OK, I'm going to check that box. We can roll up more efficient Monday night meetings so we can achieve more. That's the goal Monday nights. Okay, I'm like that's it for the schedule. Do we have any business not on the agenda? I have one more thing and this is just going back to budget and that is one of the things Ms. Phyllines before it was more information from the school board on the situation., suppose we do hear from the school board and they say, well, we could one and a half cent cut is a lot. We could probably squeeze in a one cent cut. Do we revisit or we firm on one and a half cent or are we waiting for that more information? Just tossing that there, because I'm curious. I mean, we vote on the 12th, so I don't think anything's firm until you vote. Yeah. I'll say the same thing I said to Mr. Shields, like I think we should be prepared for worse than one and a half and look at what those levers are. So ideally, when we're all going back to the drawing table, we look at what are all the cuts. Again, where the line will depend on whether we take it now or take it six months from now or a year from now, but I think it would be wise for us to think ahead beyond even one and a half cents. Other thoughts? Well, I think we've shown some budget discipline tonight and we just ask for the schools to take a look at their budget again and come back with a very best that they can without allowing class sizes to grow. That's a fundamental to me but again we're talking about a total budget of $132 million. And we're talking about a couple hundred thousand dollars. Hopefully this schools will find a way to do that without affecting the quality of education. So yeah. Yeah, you know, one of the things I was thinking I'm sitting next to the former executive director of the Ed Foundation, but in the Ed Foundation can't pay for salaries, but they can pay for things like training and professional development. So I don't know, I'm just, I don't want to get too far into the school's business, but I mean that might be one thing to explore is are there ways that they could cut something that the Ed Foundation, at least for this year, at least for this year can pick up. That's what they do a lot is training in professional development, that sort of thing. But again, I know that that's not our role to figure it out, but they need to figure it out. Thanks. Okay. Any regional committee or council liaison reports? The council member comments. Yeah, at some point I'd like to do a quick maybe 10 minutes on air quality. There was a very kind of not very accurate story last week and the fact is that we've done some major work on air quality that would have been even better minus the Canadian wildfires that spread a lot of smoke into our area and jumped on numbers up but we are we're on the track for full attainment we were out ofment, we're on track for full attainment. So I think we ought to talk about the progress we're making as well as talk about what more we can do. But that may be something again, I'm not asking for more than 10 minutes, but maybe we can work that in some point. Thanks. Why it on the schedule, if we find when we have the ESC joining us, maybe we can, that would make sense to have the ESC to talk about it then Dave, because the ESC's joining us may fit in their annual reports. Maybe that would be a good thing to insert there on their quality update. Thank you for bringing that up. We confirm Koya training's in here tomorrow, six to seven. It's about to say that it's going to be a busy week. So we have Koi training. There's a three o'clock option and a six o'clock option in chambers. Correct. We confirmed Koya trainings in here tomorrow six to seven. I was about to say that it's going to be a busy week. So we have Koya training. There's a three o'clock option and a six o'clock option in Chambers. Correct, Sally. The three o'clock is with staffed if you can't do six because I can't do six. I was going to join the three to do three o'clock. Sally told us we can do either right. And about an hour do you think it'll last? Okay, so three o'clock and six o'clock. Yeah. Okay, thank you. And this fulfills kind of the biennial requirement we have. Right. Great. I just wanted to briefly say that Miss Underhill and I visited the juvenile detention center. And it was a night, you jump in, but I thought it was terrific use of our time. John Lawrence met us there. And we had also a tour of the shelter that is right next door. And you know, it's, the staff there is just very, very impressive. And what they've done, they've really done a good job trying, you know, that building is very old. It was built in the 50s. It definitely has a very institutional feel to it. The beds are concrete slabs like you would see in a jail. So, you know, I know that John's trying to work on that and they've done a really nice job getting some new furniture that's soft colors trying to make it a more welcoming environment so that it's easier for kids to be rehabilitated. And when we were leaving, they did talk about that the USDA cut their money for food. I guess you can, if they'd have to hire some more staff in order to qualify for the funding, I think, was the situation. I believe Aurora House has the same issue. So we may be hearing about that. I don't know, Ms. Hunter Hill, did you have anything to add that we got to see the shelter force program as well. And that was really inspiring, just seeing the work that they're doing there and the dedication and commitment of the staff. It was a whole other world that I didn't frankly know about from my first year in council. And so it was really great being able to see the programs that they have there and what they're doing for the kids was I walked away a different person from seeing that. So yeah, it was a great experience. Thank you for making time for that. I think some of us visited pre-COVID. And so that was pretty eye-opening to see the detention center. Okay, other comments or notes about boards or commissions? As opposed to the Khoi training, so other things this week. I think on Thursday, there is a ULI award ceremony on range and snider. He's getting the Change Maker award, and then FYI for a council on Friday where actually can have elected from Sacramento, California, visiting Northern Virginia, and they're stopping off in Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church and walking. Falls Church? Nice to see electeds across the country, can I can tether? Okay, well, unless we have anything else, I think that's it for the night. We are adjourned. Thank you all.