Board of Supervisors County Executive’s Presentation to Board – Recommended Budget   2/23/2022

The supervisors who are electronically present at this meeting are Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District,

Supervisor, Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, and myself, Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District.

The opportunities for the public to access and participate in the electronic meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of Supervisors homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar.

At this time, I will turn it over to our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, for his FY 2022-2023 recommended budget.

Good afternoon, Chair Price, members of the Board, and to those who are tuning in from the community.

our key partners and our staff.

Today is the start of public discussions of the fiscal year 2023 recommended budget.

Over the next several weeks,

There will be a series of work sessions that will take a deeper look into the contents of the budget recommendations and an opportunity to shape this budget further to best align our priorities with the capacity that we have as we move toward fiscal year 23.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is still a part of budget story.

And that's because of how we're seeing sustained uneven impacts in different areas of our local economy.

And the impact that the pandemic has had on the workforce, on the timeline and cost for capital projects, and on our community.

I'll briefly touch on the fiscal year 22 budget.

the current budget year because there is a through line going all the way back to March of 2020 to today.

We'll then get some, then we'll get into some of the drivers for the fiscal year 23 budget and then we'll shift to what investments we're recommending that we make and then talk about the next several weeks as we work toward an adopted budget on May the 4th.

Board of Supervisors fiscal year 2022's budget theme pulled forward the budget theme from fiscal year 21, which was respond, recover, recalibrate.

The fiscal year 21 budget was a budget in flux.

We did not know in the spring of 2020 what exactly the next 15 months ahead would look like, but we took with the board's support a very cautious approach to rebuild a budget using the best information that we had.

We paused a number of projects and we froze positions across the organization.

We added in the FY22 budget, and you see this on the screen, the word resilient, because that budget was and is designed to make strategic investments, to make structural changes and alignments, to ensure that we're focusing resources in the right places to make the biggest impact as we move forward.

As we look across the community and we think about how are we doing, I want to point to a couple of things.

First, Albemarle County has had and continues to have the highest vaccination rate in the Commonwealth.

That's not by accident.

That's been a dedicated effort for over a two-year period with key partner agencies across this region and community to turn that statistic out, which it provides the community with opportunities and options that we otherwise don't have.

Thankfully, we are now past the Omicron variant surge.

Unemployment, which peaked at 9% in April of 2020, is now hovering at just over 2%, which is among its most historic points.

Things have stabilized.

yet the pandemic is still here.

Yes, not all businesses and families have recovered to the same extent, and we're gonna talk more about that in what we're doing there.

But things have stabilized and our community and our organization are ready to transform, to return back while looking forward, bringing what we've learned along the way with us to set clear intentions and to work differently, to continue to meet the community's needs.

The 36612 budget framework guided us safely into fiscal year 2022.

The transitionary budget has been just that.

In December, the board adopted a mid-year budget adjustment in part due to better than forecasted revenues that enabled us to address some of our most critical needs, workforce and workload capacity.

As much as the three in the fiscal year 20 was about slamming hard on the brakes to halt many of the expenditures to give us time to understand how this pandemic would affect our local economy, fiscal year 22 has been about working more swiftly and stepping on the gas to respond to revenues that have recovered more quickly than we ever would have forecasted.

This approach to budgeting has allowed us to adjust as our circumstances and as our data adjust, all resulting in moving the county forward.

The fiscal year 22 budget directed funding to our most critical needs, broadband, fire rescue systems needs, IT infrastructure migration, stabilizing our workforce, and using strategic funding to advance climate action, affordable housing, and business process optimization.

And the mid-year adjustment provided us with the welcomed capacity to support critical systems needs within our organization.

So board, it's been an interesting two years as we now look and put our attention for fiscal year 23.

And I just want to take a second before we dive into that to just slow down for a second.

Let's all just slow down for one second.

Let these words sink in just for a second, board.

I say that with all due respect.

I walked into room 228 today and I looked to my left and I read our county vision.

Our county vision, it's been on that wall since the day I started work here.

Albemarle County will be a community with abundant, natural, rural, historic, and scenic resources, healthy ecosystems,

active and vibrant development areas, a physical environment that supports healthy lifestyles, a thriving economy, and an exceptional educational opportunity for present and future generations.

That's our vision.

So now let's take a look at fiscal year 23, and I just ask all of you to keep those words in your mind and let's see how we've aligned.

the capacity and the resources with that vision in mind.

Economic indicators.

These indicators show a community that continues a trend of steady growth.

Population growth is in line with the average growth for the past decade.

An increase in recordations and a sustained high volume of new construction coupled with a real property assessment of 8.4% indicate a strong interest in living in Albemarle County.

Tax revenues from fiscal year 21 to our current fiscal year 22 are projected to increase by 17.1% for consumption taxes like sales, food, and TOT and by 3% for business driven taxes like VPOL and business personal property.

We are mindful that those indicators don't highlight some of the challenges in the local economy.

The prices that consumers are paying have risen.

They've risen by 7.5% when comparing January 22

to January 21 over one year.

Gas prices are up nearly 40 percent from where they were a year ago and participants in the SNAP Supplemental Food Program remain higher than in pre-pandemic 2019.

As we look over the past two years and we're trying to look

and determine how healthy and how recovered our local economy is.

I want to show you a slide that represents at a national level what car prices have done over the course of the pandemic.

Over the last two years, car prices have risen, used cars leading the way by almost 40% across the nation.

Real estate values may be at the top of mind because of reassessment notices, but on the personal property side, which also assesses based on market valuations, we've seen a huge spike in used car prices and it's driven by supply chain and chips shortages on a global level.

Board, I want to take a moment to talk about our financial foundation.

We have a triple AAA rating from the credit rating agencies.

This allows us to receive more competitive rates when we issue bonds to fund capital needs.

That means our monthly debt service payments are lower as a result of that.

We've invested over the past few budgets into modernizing our financial management through a combination of policies, procedures, and systems work.

The early results are impressive.

In June 2021, the county refinanced some existing debt, netting $2.5 million in savings.

Our finance team is in the process of doing the same thing again in March with a projected $1.9 million in savings.

That's $3.4 million that is real dollars saved, meaning that we take that money and we're able to put more funds into the capital program, and that means we get more done.

Credit ratings are much more than just about the letters, though, board.

It's about what that measures, what it requires around fiscal responsibility.

It gives us flexibility to access capital markets, and it allows us to keep cash on hand to meet critical service needs while advancing our long-term capital needs.

And it ensures that we have measures in place to minimize our financial risk.

For the supervisors, one of the county's core values is innovation, and innovation is defined as embracing creativity and positive change.

Our organization, as we work with the FY23 budget to transform Albemarle, we are embracing creativity and we're embracing positive change.

because this fiscal year recommended budget is built to transform Albemarle.

We are working differently.

This includes a community response team, community capacity building,

and investing in urban service delivery.

We're making transformational investments in a 21st century quartz complex, a new park at Biscuit Run that is unlike any other park in our system and addressing our school's capacity needs.

And we're investing in our organization so that we can continue to deliver the right services in the most effective way possible.

This slide represents the total budget, which is $565.1 million.

And this budget is built on our current tax rate of 85.4 cents per $100 assessed value tax rate.

And that is the same as calendar year 2021.

So the balance of my remarks are going to focus on the general fund, which is what funds Albemarle County government.

and all of the work that the various departments within Albemarle County carry out every day.

This of course is one of my favorite slides.

And just as I asked the board to take a pause and just let the vision sink in for a minute, you probably were a part of creating that vision in some way or another.

And as it was created, how many ever years ago that it was, it resonates very true with me today as to the things that make Albemarle County special.

Well, these balls represent departments.

The size represents the money that's invested.

But what I really want to focus on is the interconnectivity because I believe in my heart that stronger cross-departmental work relations generate our best work.

And it is also our most impactful work.

And you see all of these balls and they're all connected.

And that's just part of the story.

It goes further than that.

It also has to do with our key partnerships with our community partners and our 65 agency partners that we work with every day.

County government is complex, it's interesting, and there's never two days that are alike.

And all of this stuff works together on its best day in some type of harmonious synchronization where we do our best work.

And we do it through a lot of our community partners and the agencies that we work with every day.

Okay.

The general fund revenues for fiscal year 2023 are estimated at $368.2 million.

You will notice the bottom right hand, the dark blue, is the general property taxes, which makes up the significant portion of those revenues.

and in balance with the recommended expenditures with a transfer to the school division to meet their request of $167.5 million.

That's the far left bottom.

And that is the largest expenditure within Albemarle County government, $35.8 million in capital and debt, $15.5 million in revenue sharing payment to the city of Charlottesville and the balance to support our work in service to the community that we serve.

We always begin our budget process with the strategic plan from climate action and outdoor recreation through urban revitalization, school space needs, all underpinned with what we call quality government operations.

We're in the final year.

of this specific strategic plan and we look forward later in the calendar year as maybe we're approaching the fall to have meaningful conversations with our board and with our community looking to develop a new revised strategic plan as part of the fiscal year 2023 work.

From staff's perspective, it made sense for us to discuss our resource investments, our recommended resource investments through the following framework.

Looking at top left, transformative capital investments, top right, working differently, bottom left is urban service delivery, and bottom right is quality government operations.

Okay.

First is transformative capital investments.

When I review our five-year capital plan,

and our fiscal year 2023 capital budget.

It is transformational.

Our investments in financial management have allowed us to be smarter in how we're funding projects and be strong fiscal stewards, another one of our county core values.

At the same time, recent and recommended investments to increase our throughput for getting the work done will enable us to move more quickly, bringing projects online.

support and procurement in accounting, the county attorney's office, and in project management in the school division and in the school division are all positioning us to execute projects more effectively.

The budget recommendations will, over the next five years, advance three new public school projects to address capacity needs within our school system.

Two elementary schools, one from the northern feeder pattern, one from the south, and a second high school center.

The budget recommendation supports a second phase of Biscuit Run Park, which will include trail connections into the park and athletic fields.

We are anticipating that Biscuit Run's first phase, also supported in the CIP, will open in calendar year 2023.

This is a 1,200 acre natural park within the county's development area, and it will provide a park experience unlike any of our other parks, combining the natural features of our rural parks with athletic amenities that you expect from an urban park.

This budget continues to fund the court's expansion and renovation project to deliver safe and effective facilities to house our judicial functions.

This budget will also support school renovations and indoor air quality improvements system-wide.

It will provide funding to continue to advance our broadband infrastructure work, which will approach universal broadband in 2025.

This budget recommends continued investments in our transportation leveraging program, which provides local funding to draw down state funding for road and bike and pedestrian improvements.

These projects keep our community moving safely and respond to safety and capacity needs.

The local money to match the state money is creating capacity for Albemarle County, much like when our finance department

looks at how they repackage our debt to create financial capacity.

This transportation leveraging program does exactly the same thing.

These key projects keeps our community moving safely in response to safety and the capacity needs that our community expects.

Some of the projects have been awarded funding by DOT and they include Route 20 and 53 improvements,

Route 250 Corridor Project, Berkmar Extension to Airport Road, Rio John Warner Parkway, Old Lynchburg Road, Fifth Street County Office Building.

This slide summarizes some of our recommended key investments in transformational capital investments.

This slide speaks to the county's capital infrastructure program and our commitment to our capital budget.

While the capital budget has fluctuated over time, so for an example, look in fiscal year 2006, the capital budget was approximately $23 million.

For fiscal year 23, for this coming year, the recommended capital budget is approximately

$93 million.

And I would like to note that in 2010 and 2011, these years were impacted by the Great Recession and in 2021 by the pause in the capital program due to the pandemic.

Our community continues to adapt and grow, and as a government, we have to work differently in order to keep pace.

This budget recommendation will launch a community response team led by the Department of Social Services and with a police officer, a firefighter EMT, and a social worker to respond to calls for individuals who are in crisis.

Depending on the details of the call, this team will adapt their resources to best meet the critical needs of the person, ensuring the safety of all parties involved.

The response team will then work to support the individual beyond the immediate crisis through supportive connections to community partners to get these needs met.

The program responds to a troubling growth in mental health calls for service that have unique needs.

This program will allow us to preserve our fire rescue and our police resources where an urgent medical need or a criminal matter is not a part of this type of situation.

The funding identified for this initiative is the cigarette tax which took effect on January 1st.

The budget also recommends using a portion of our ARPA funding in order to fund a sewer connection program for individuals who are in the jurisdictional boundary for public sewer but are currently on septic tank.

There is a connection cost that can

that can be out of reach for many homeowners.

The proposed program would provide fiscal support to low-income households in making that shift as the age of these homes and the infrastructure attached to that is reaching a tipping point where the failure of a septic system in the urban area presents a real environmental health hazard.

There are approximately 250 households that because of where they're located could be connected to the public sewer system.

The budget recommends that the Yancey Community Center continue to be a part of the county's work in fostering community and providing a home to support services in the southern part of Albemarle County.

After a three-year grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, another community partner, this budget now will fully fund the programs

and position at Yancy.

Part of the work of the Yancy coordinator is the center itself and part of it is on the ground connections with individuals and organizations in the southern part of our county.

In addition, we also will recommend, and this is based on the workload associated with the comprehensive plan work, we're going to recommend two positions that will be three-year contract employees that will be temporary engagement coordinators to help support some of the committees that the neighborhood development team now supports.

But they'll also use the model of the ANSI coordinator to build relationships with individuals and community organizations in other parts of the county.

In summary, here are some of the key recommended investments that are in the areas of working differently in Albemarle County.

The budget makes investments in urban levels of service.

We recommend investing in a street sweeper program to increase the frequency of street sweeping in our urban areas, which is good for keeping our bike lanes clear of debris, and it's also good for keeping contaminants out of our streams.

It will help keep Albemarle County beautiful.

We also recommend investments in strengthening our capacity for right-of-way management and vegetation management to better manage and maintain our existing spaces and to ease the process of building new bike and ped infrastructure in the development area.

Based on the board's interest through the Albemarle Transit Expansion Study, we will recommend supporting a pilot program for microtransit that will leverage state and federal funding for an innovative on-demand service model in the 29 North and Pantops area.

We also recommend further investing in fire services to operate the engine 161 out of Pantops 24 hours a day, seven days a week to further support the strength of our fire rescue system and to reduce our reliance on Charlottesville fire for calls east of the city.

Also, we will recommend two additional police officers that will help in strengthening our squad-based policing model where our officers work together regularly to foster a deeper level of coordination and relationships throughout the community.

We are also recommending further investing in our economic development fund to support business retention and business expansion to continue our success in supporting new career ladder jobs for our community and for public-private partnerships that leverage private investments and deliver public goods.

projects like Barnes Lumber in Crozet and the recent support for businesses like Bonumos on Pantops and Rivanna Medical east of town and to provide additional funding for the Convention and Visitors Bureau for marketing efforts to strengthen our tourism sector which remains in recovery mode following the pandemic's impacts on travel and events.

This board is a summary slide on some of our recommended key investments under the heading of urban service delivery.

Our final area that I want to talk about today is quality government operations.

What underpins our ability to execute on the programs, the services, and the projects that our community relies on to stay safe and to keep moving forward.

Our workforce is the backbone of this organization, and it helps to strengthen our community.

Our people in our community are the backbone of our community as well.

Throughout the whole pandemic, people have gone above and beyond to meet the critical needs that they were seeing from their vantage point.

There are stories across this organization of individuals who have continued to step up.

We have the employee who drove over 100 miles to ensure children she served were doing okay with virtual school.

The person who dropped everything to generate usable data to allow public safety teams to conduct wellness checks on vulnerable individuals during our recent snowstorm.

The teams of individuals who travel in hazardous road conditions to clear blocked roadways during times of emergency.

This recommended budget includes a 4% market adjustment effective July the 1st for all qualified staff to continue to move our organization relative to our market to allow us hopefully to retain people who give this community so much every day and also to recruit the next generation of dedicated public servants.

During fiscal year 22, we have planned to undertake the first comprehensive compensation and classification study.

This board has supported that.

This recommended budget earmarks funding for future HR investments once we learn more from this upcoming study.

This recommended budget supports our ongoing core systems modernization work to implement enterprise solutions to allow our teams to effectively manage resources and to provide a much more streamlined customer service experience.

This work touches our financial systems, our HR systems, our asset management systems, community development, and it's all with a broader customer service management.

With modern systems in place, our staff will be able to shift from focusing on moving paper from place to place to true customer service delivery, resource management, and execution.

This program has both systems cost and personnel to establish and manage the systems, analyze the data, and continue to optimize how we do business.

I just spoke about the capital program and its growth over time and analyzing the best way to improve our throughput.

Once these projects are funded by our board and supported, then how quickly can we act, move these projects to reality?

We have put additional resources in finance, additional resources in legal, but now we have to focus on project management.

As we evaluated the program, we identified that our current model no longer serves the needs of both schools and local government.

A shared project management function was designed around the seasonality of summer work in schools and evaluating the needs of today's capital program, schools work,

is and will continue to be a year-round effort.

This budget recommends shifting how we manage capital projects solely from within county governments facilities planning and construction division to project management both within schools building services and local government.

We believe that our current and expected future scales fy23 provides the opportunity to begin this transition and and we will look at our cip that includes several large projects for both organizations

Finally, board, there are over 50 boards and commissions that have seats for community member appointments.

This budget recommends providing a dedicated administrative support staff to ensure everyone that is coming on board with Albemarle County in a volunteer appointment has a good experience, whether they are a first time applicant or a seasoned volunteer.

From application to appointment to orientation,

and to ongoing training.

And so board, this slide summarizes some of our key recommended investments in quality government operations.

The fiscal year 23 budget is balanced on a real property tax rate of 85.4 cents per $100 of assessed value, the same rate as calendar year 2021.

When our team looked at what was happening with vehicle valuations, we looked hard at how to best respond in an appropriate and equitable manner.

Our team believes that real property assessments will sustain and continue with a trend of upward growth in the future.

However, due to the market conditions driving vehicle valuations high, we believe the increase for FY23 will correct and decline in future years.

After looking at several options, reducing the personal property tax rate is our recommendation.

bringing that rate in line with our projected growth from last fall.

And I will take a moment to state board that this is the first time that we've looked, that this county has looked at the personal property tax rate since 1993.

This speaks to the oddity that we are seeing in our national market right now with used car prices going up over the last 12 to 18 months by almost 40%.

used cars they depreciate, that's the history of it, and we're seeing something that we've never seen before.

And so that is helping to drive this recommendation that we adjust that rate downward to adjust for the oddity of what we're seeing.

The board has sought and received taxing authority from the Commonwealth for a local cigarette tax and a plastic bag tax.

Both of these have been incorporated into the fiscal year 23 recommended budget.

Revenues from the cigarette tax will fund the community response team as well as our street sweeping program.

Funds from the plastic bag tax by state code will go towards environmental programming.

Across the bottom of your slide

are the tax rates that are recommended for food and beverage, sometimes called the meals tax and transit occupancy.

We are recommending that these rates increase under the newly available authority from the Commonwealth to the rates that are currently in place with City of Charlottesville.

The TOT is generally paid for by visitors from outside of our community.

I'll talk more in a few minutes about how these increases will help us with our revenue diversity focus.

I want to share a little bit more context around personal property tax.

The personal property tax rate applies to individual vehicles, motorcycles, mobile homes, and boats, as well as business tangible personal property and machinery and tools.

Reducing this rate will have a positive impact across the board for people and businesses in our community.

Reducing the personal property tax rate helps us to reduce what otherwise would be a large, unexpected bill for community members that typically goes out in the June timeframe.

I believe this recommended reduction is responsible because we do not anticipate that this increase in valuations of vehicles will sustain.

We believe it's short term and that it is driven by supply chain and material shortages that are due in part to the pandemic.

So I mentioned briefly the revenue diversification opportunity.

Where are the county's revenues coming from?

Who pays for the services that we deliver?

There are two ends of the spectrum.

Destination communities are able to leverage spending by those visiting the community to generate revenue for local services that are provided to our residents.

Bedroom communities don't have a strong revenue mix and rely on those that live in the community for the revenues to deliver services.

The more vibrant and diversified your revenue sources, the more resilient your budget is.

We lived through this in 2020 and 2021.

Destination communities were hit hard during that time period where people were not traveling.

and these communities had to make tough choices about how to sustain service levels and provide the necessary relief to the community.

In fiscal year 2007, you can see on the slide 60% of our general government revenues came from real property tax revenue.

By fiscal year 2022,

That number had grown to 68.5%, due in part to the aggressive pace by which our real estate assessments continue to grow.

And it's growing more rapidly than other revenue areas, including state revenues, which have grown, but at a much slower pace.

At the same time, the Board of Supervisors has been working at the state level to give us more options for taxation so we can further reduce our reliance on the real estate property tax.

We've been given the authority for local cigarette tax, it went into effect January, a plastic bag tax, which we'll be exploring in the coming months, and additional taxing authority for transit occupancy and food and beverage.

I'll spend just a minute on transit occupancy and food and beverage.

Thousands of people visit our community for vacations, sporting events, weddings, and to visit our natural and historic resources.

We are also a regional hub for commercial activity.

Increasing our taxes in these two areas means that we can begin to shift revenues away from the people who live here and spread it out more broadly to those who are visiting our community.

and while they're here they benefit from our infrastructure, our public safety, and all the other amenities that have drawn them to come and visit our community.

This is a good year in my opinion for us to be talking about this.

Local governments across most urban areas in the country have been completing revenue forecasts that are capturing what has been anecdotal stories about current market conditions and in a lot of areas for local government to include real estate, new and used cars, retail sales, food and beverage sales.

Our revenue forecasts for fiscal year 23 are strong due to an average real estate assessment of almost 9% for residential, 1.4% for commercial, and over 20% as I've stated for personal property tax.

This presents an opportunity for us to revisit our revenue mix to shift some of the tax burden from real estate to other areas.

At the same time that we look to diversify our revenues, we also wanted to look at our relief programs to ensure that those in our community who are most vulnerable can receive relief.

Last week, this Board of Supervisors directed our staff to move forward with two relief programs that will provide additional relief to existing program participants and expand eligibility.

This recommended budget is balanced with both of these programs incorporated as our board directed.

Board, to wrap this up, I'll briefly touch on some summaries by program area.

In addition to looking at the recommended FY23 capital recommendations, I want to talk about and highlight the scope and scale of our five-year capital improvement plan.

It includes all of the items that were advanced by the CIP advisory committee in late fall and several additions, including an additional elementary school project and school renovation projects, as well as additional funding commitments.

to the Transportation Leveraging Program, an accelerated schedule for Phase 1B at Biscuit Run Park.

This CIP at $292.3 million over five years will begin three new schools, open a new 1,200-acre public park, and make significant progress in modernizing the way this local government works.

If you look at the slide board, the yellow blocks

recognize the school projects, the blue boxes recognize county local government projects, and the two green boxes at the bottom respectfully recognize that there is an overlap between the two organizations, both with our work on maintenance and replacement and core systems modernization.

Board and community, this slide recognizes and is a snapshot of how our five-year CIP plan appropriations are sequenced from FY23 through FY27.

Albemarle County received $21 million in federal relief funding through the American Rescue Plan Act.

This board approved $9 million in funding for use in fiscal year 2022 to address some immediate needs and opportunities, and staff recommended the balance to be programmed through fiscal 23 budget process by designating $2 million for broadband access and affordability and creating a $10 million reserve

after reimbursing the general fund for revenue loss associated with the pandemic.

The reserve that was created is recommended to be designated for the following uses.

$2.4 million to support the premier circle affordable housing project led by Virginia supportive housing.

$1 million for the sewer connection program that I talked about earlier.

$750,000 for the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority projects in the Red Hill and Scottsville area, $1.75 million for economic development to include marketing support for the Convention and Visitors Bureau, $500,000 to help support infrastructure at Biscuit Run,

$900,000 to support nonprofits to continue to adapt their programs to the impact of the pandemic.

And finally, $1.7 million in reserve to allow additional flexibility for us moving forward, and $1 million in reserve funding for pandemic-related expenses.

Board, we will have work sessions and we certainly will be talking more about this and give this board an opportunity to dig in and look at these recommendations thoroughly.

Board, I'll remind everyone that in December this board reviewed a framework approach to use the $13.2 million in fiscal year 2021 fund balance, the recommended budget,

includes that framework providing $3.1 million to the housing fund, $5 million to the economic development fund, and $4.1 million transfer to the capital fund to increase our cash, and $1 million for workforce stabilization initiative to fund the first local government compensation and class study and reserve funding to implement it.

As I move down to the close of this presentation today, I wanted to talk for a few minutes about the new positions that this budget is recommending across the organization to support priority programs and to address critical capacity needs that are being driven by workload volume.

The timing of these positions, and we can talk more specific about this as we go through the budget work session, but the timing of these new positions coming on board would be phased from July 1 all the way through January 1 for two reasons.

One is to pair new positions with the timing of the expected need.

For an example, budgeting the fire and rescue and police positions with recruit school and training timelines.

The second is a recognition of our ongoing work

to build our county government human resources department.

This board supported that this would be the transition year with our partner the schools as we go through our last year of that shared service human resources function

Beginning July the 1st, we should be to a point where we can stand on our own as a local government human resources function.

But this is the transition year.

And as we hire and bring on new positions, which is underway now, we'll have greater capacity to recruit and onboard these positions that are recommended for fiscal year 23.

So you can see here that we have positions listed on this page.

all the way through.

All right.

Board, this is a familiar graphic that we show each year to illustrate how a tax dollar funds the critical services across Albemarle County.

I like this slide.

And board, as you know, today is the first public step in this process.

Next Wednesday, as part of the board's regular meeting,

will be the public hearing on the fiscal year 23 recommended budget.

We will then work through March in the first week of April on reviewing the budget book in depth as well as the special topics as we identify them.

The budget is expected to have a final public hearing on the board on the board proposed budget on April 27 and we expect that this board will approve the fiscal year 23 budget and set the calendar year 22 tax rate on May 4.

Ford, thank you so much for your, not just your attention today and your support, but thank you for hanging with us and being a true partner over the last two years.

Andy Bowman says that this is the most complex budget that he's put together in his entire career.

I'm a little older than Andy, and I would certainly agree.

This is the most complex budget.

You worked hand in glove with us and you trusted us over the past two years as we took

very careful incremental steps forward.

You also trusted us when we came to you at mid-year and we said, we've got to go now.

We need to make some adjustments because the economy's recovering and we've got to do more and more quickly.

And you stood with us and we made those investments and we said, this will not deter you from your FY23 considerations.

Thank you very much for that trust and that support.

We know that you have a lot of work ahead of you.

This is going to be a lot of stuff for you to look at in the budget.

We may not have aligned all of the capacity to the priorities, the opportunities, and the problems.

You may have to make adjustments.

That's what this board does, but we will work with you.

We will provide options for you, and we will try to give you all of the data and all of the analysis that you need in order to make your best decisions.

So remember when I asked you to slow down and stop at the beginning and I read to you our vision statement.

Now I'll take a step further and I'll remind all of us what our mission is.

Why do we exist?

Why is Albemarle County here?

It's to enhance the wellbeing and quality of life for all our citizens through the provision of the highest level of public service consistent with the prudent use of public funds.

I believe that our staff has worked judiciously in listening to the board and paying attention to your strategic priorities to take the capacity that we have, both with local money, match money, federal money, to move the highest priorities forward starting in fiscal year 23.

I think we've done good work.

I'll take a moment

and I want to especially thank our finance and budget team.

I'll start there because board, I went back and reminded us all that in 20, they did another budget in about two weeks.

When we asked for mid-year adjustments, our finance department again stepped up and they made adjustments in a short period of time.

And then that moved them into this process and they've been working tirelessly to get us to where we are today and we met deadline.

So finance and budget, thank you very much for the work that you've done throughout this process.

I also appreciate the support from CAPE.

It's been amazing.

I appreciate the support from our departments who've worked very hard to give us the information that we need in order to make the recommendations that we've made.

So board, thank you for today.

I'm excited about the opportunities, maybe more excited than I've ever been because we have worked tirelessly since March 11, 2020 to put ourselves in the position that we are in today at this moment.

And so we've got good work sessions lined up.

There's a lot of hard work ahead, but we have a lot of good things to talk about.

Thank you, Mr. Richardson, and I will save my remarks till my turn comes.

Thank you, Jeff.

And I endorse or back up the comments to your budget and finance team for the work they've done to get this ready.

I know we'll have a lot of time to get into

information, but a couple of quick questions I have, if I could just throw them out there.

I'm not expecting answers now, but you can, I think these are more you directing me where to go to find them in the budget book, but I'm sure that we have.

First off, your presentation, I know that'll be made public.

The one with the specific slides with the positions by department,

Could that be printed out and made available to us, just those slides?

I don't need the whole presentation.

I mean, other supervisors might want the whole presentation, but that one that's positioned by department would be particularly helpful to have a paper version of.

Relative to the 4% market adjustment for the staff raises,

I'll be curious to see what the 6% we did last year, where that puts us in the trend that we've been tracking.

When we did the 6% raise, we knew we were behind when we looked at average inflation, and that was before even the big inflation hit that we've been currently experiencing.

But I'm curious where that puts us.

So when we did the 6% raise, I talked about we were attempting to right size our staff's pay.

The thought behind the question is how right-sized are we?

I'm thinking the 6% and the 4% are needed to do that right sizing.

No, the compensation study is coming.

But for me, that helps frame not just the decision we're making for the budget, but then to be prepared and ready for what we learned from the compensation study.

And then the cost of the personal property tax, the reduction that just I didn't, I don't know if you mentioned that total amount or what that cost is or if that's on a page in the budget book.

But if that could be highlighted for us at some point, that would be great.

But otherwise, great presentation.

I look forward to getting work through the budget and know that we'll be talking about a lot of other things.

Supervisor Galloway, if I could just add, I believe that the budget book and possibly the presentation are available or will be available.

Yes, on the county's website, if it is not already, it will imminently be posted online, and I will speak to one of the Supervisors Galloway's questions.

The positions will be on page 72 of the budget document, and that will include not just the changes in this recommended budget, but also the story of what's been added with that mid-year update and other changes to date.

All right, so page 72 of the budget book, I grabbed mine already, the budget book.

Yes.

That's what mirrors that slide.

All right, thank you.

And just for the record, that was our County Chief Financial Officer, Nelsie Burch, and Chief of Budget, Andy Bowman, who made those comments.

Yes, thank you for this presentation.

It's a lot to digest here.

We've got our book and a lot to read.

I will have a lot of questions, I'm sure, before this is over.

At this point, a couple quick ones.

I know that the House of Delegates and the State Senate are meeting and discussing a lot of things.

How much will that impact this budget, if at all?

And how much do we expect things coming out of Richmond to affect us at this point?

And I think that the schools also have to be included in that.

And then a sort of broader question, just for food for thought, is that

A lot of times, I've always been advised that when you try to figure out what's a priority in any organization, it's not to ask what they're doing, but what they're not doing.

And what it is that you sort of cut.

Where did you see things that you said, well, OK, this is just not something that we can put it as a priority right now.

I know this is a difficult process, and that's one of the things I want to explore further.

I'm going to stop here because I've got a lot of questions going forward, but I've got a lot of reading to do.

So thank you very much for this presentation.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Supervisor McKeel.

Yes, thank you.

Jeff and all of the finance folks and everybody that had a share in this work, I really appreciate it.

I thought the presentation was really outstanding.

It really clarified, I think, many of the topics that the public has heard us talk about for, in some cases, more than one year, several years, three or four years.

and I personally do not have my budget book yet.

I have not picked it up.

I like to hear your presentation and hear the first blush and then we'll get my book and then create my questions going forward.

We certainly have lots of budget meetings set up that are open to the public and I'm sure we'll be hearing from the public and be able to ask some of their questions as well.

So with that, the one thing that I have been asking for though is off and on over the last several months, how does the General Assembly work?

Key into what we're doing right now.

So I agree with Jim.

It will be really great to have a discussion about that as well.

Recognizing that that's fluid and at times hard to tack down.

Good morning or afternoon and thank you to everyone.

This has been I think one of the most clear and slow enough paced presentations so we can really take it in effectively as we go and I appreciate that.

I'm always asking for the speakers to slow down so people can hear the words of what they're conveying and that's been very successfully done today.

I agree that we are at risk in many different elements from the General Assembly.

We just don't know where the gunfire is coming from.

And so it may be weeks and weeks before we find that out.

We've dodged some of the most dramatic bullets, but I just want to make sure they're not reviving.

later on.

I was particularly struck in the slide about the CIP, which has always been a critical resource for me because of the difficulties we've had.

2010, the fiscal year 2010, we were under 10 million dollars.

That was the time when the only thing we were funding

was carrying forward the few projects that have been approved before the recession.

And that reduction of the $100 million of new projects three and four years in a row is why we have the backlog we have.

So I really want citizens to understand that we are making a valiant effort at catch up with available one time money that is a once in a lifetime generational thing to have at hand.

And I so appreciate the focus

on Capitol for that reason.

And as many others, I will have, I'm sure, hundreds of questions.

And I appreciate in advance all the work that people will do to share them with us.

And our citizens, I know, will be forthcoming at community meetings to share their concerns with us as well.

And certainly at that first public hearing, if there are sort of philosophical comments that people care to share, even though they might not have had time to read the whole book.

I hope we will hear from you.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much for a very thorough and comprehensive presentation and thank you very much also to all those involved that were put together.

I also have concerns regarding the legislature which

just a year ago.

So it gave us the opportunity to raise taxes in other areas so that we wouldn't have to solely focus on our property taxes.

that is in danger of being taken away.

And even the legislature said if they take away our ability to increase any other kind of taxes, meals taxes, hotel taxes, cigarette taxes, tax on plastic bags, that the only thing we would have left is real estate taxes.

We don't want to do that.

So I'm really, really hoping that the legislature does not do that.

so that we do have flexibility.

I'll be looking forward to getting my budget book reading that and I know we're going to have a very robust discussion.

So far I know, okay, Supervisor Mallek had to show me that she has hers.

I'll be getting mine this week, but also

I think we have a really, really good first budget proposal.

Maybe the final proposal, I don't know, but I think our staff really did an outstanding job.

I've seen budgets, and this is really a good job.

It was thorough, it was comprehensive, it addressed the issues that I think we needed to help the residents of Albemarle County, and I applaud the staff.

Thank you, and I'm going to echo many of those comments, Mr. Richardson.

Clearly, thanks go to you, Nelsie Burch, our County Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Andy Bowman, our Chief of Budget, Ryan Davidson, our Deputy Chief of Budget, whose images I see on the screen today, and I know that there are many, many others behind the scenes.

I really want our community to understand that, you know, after the January 3rd storm when everyone else was trying to dig out of the snow, Mr. Richardson,

coming in and working nights and weekends to get ready for this budget.

And the work that you have put into this clearly shows through your presentation today.

And as we go through the budget book, we'll see even more details.

I'm going to echo the sentiments that some of our other supervisors have said in particular with regard to concerns we have that the legislature in Richmond may take away some of our taxing authority.

I commend what you have done with this budget, which is to reduce our reliance upon

The impact on a county if we had to rely exclusively upon real estate property taxes puts us in a tremendous swing as the economy and property values may fluctuate.

So the work that y'all are doing to diversify our revenue streams, you know, to keep up

from having all our eggs in one basket is really significant.

The other aspect of that which I think is so significant is you know we talk about using equity and inclusion in our decisions and your proposal here to reduce the personal property tax provides an across the county of truly equitable

The application of relief to our community members substantially more than the real estate property tax may do because we do have so many people who are in tenancies and almost everyone has to rely upon their vehicles for transportation because of the nature of our county being so rural in so many areas.

So the thoughtfulness that you and your staff have demonstrated in presenting this budget are really remarkable.

And I also really get a sense of

understanding the way each year you come up with themes resilience transformation as we work through the challenges that our community faces and that helps us to see not just where we are and where we've been but really where we're going so your foresight your

I'm going to save most of my comments really for when we get into our particular budget sessions, but seeing the support for the three new schools, the 1200 acre Biscuit Run Park, working differently, the technology initiatives that will connect

and more.

so that we'll have an opportunity within our districts to be able to communicate more closely with our constituency.

So I thank you for that.

Any other supervisors have any other comments at this point before we move on to our next item?

Not seeing any.

At this point then, board, we'll move to item number three from the board.

Not matters not listed on the agenda.

Just because I've received what seems like an increase, which I'm sure we all get emails about speeding, but there have been some particular ones up 29 North, the Woodbrooke neighborhood, and Belvedere all coming at different directions in my district.

So I'm just highlighting that.

I know that's an ongoing county-wide concern that we have.

I don't know if it's the weather, the warmer weather.

We've got people pressing down on the gas pedal faster or whatnot, but

I'll forward the individual emailed concerns that I've received to the county executive office, but just highlighting that there are, and it sounds like we've been doing some speed enforcement out there as well, but just again to highlight that as a concern right now that seems to be percolating.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, I don't have any

announcement at this time.

Thank you.

I feel like I need to bring up another issue that I am hearing a lot about from my community.

And I think anyone that's driven on Georgetown Road and Barracks Road

over the last few weeks is aware of the challenge around the paving and the work that's being done on the road.

It might be a good idea if we could next week to ask and I'm not sure exactly it's an Almorro County Service Authority project in conjunction with VDOT.

VDOT is not responsible or has not done the paving.

It's an Almorro County Service Authority project.

But I really think maybe it would be a good idea if we at least chat about it briefly

at the next meeting, maybe asking Gary to come because I mean, we have cars that have had damage and they're struggling to get those cars fixed.

So just if we could put that on our radar screen, even though it's not, I realize that it's

It might add quickly to the agenda.

It would be nice to have it addressed in some way because a lot of people in our community drive Georgetown Road and Barracks Road.

So just a thought about how we might deal with sharing information on that.

Thank you and I agree there are many of us from the hinterlands who do frequent hydraulic road to get to town and it's tributaries as well and it is really dangerous especially for poor people on bicycles who get dumped to the street when they hit one of those rough spots.

This today has already been an exhausting day for us and for our staff and I want to commend Trevor Henry and also Letty Bien who at eight o'clock this morning presented a wonderful program about the county's work with Rivanna Station to the General Assembly Veterans Caucus and we heard a lot of great ideas from the Northern Virginia constituency as well that I hope we'll be able to pick up and run with based upon the hard work that they have already done.

and also to thank many staff members throughout the county government and the broadband office and the various comments that were made to the state corporation commission this morning during the public hearing about CenturyLink and their services and the sale of women.

This is the third SEC presentation I have made over the many years and it was definitely the friendliest and the examiner was very welcoming and which is very different than my experience in the past.

So I'm grateful for that.

I hope that the comments that Chair Price made and I and many others made, seven different jurisdictions made on this will make a difference and we'll have to wait and see.

But it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get some change to happen.

So I really hope

Yes, thank you very much.

I also want to commend Mr. Henry and also Lady Bien for the presentation this morning and touting what's going on at our administration for us.

I also am very much concerned and I'm hoping it's moving forward with the Albemarle County Police Department installing with the installation of photo speed cameras at Albemarle High School.

I am hoping that is going

or progressing nicely.

I do know that I understand it either it's in the process of happening that two more signs are being donated from the Keswick area two more signs are being donated to the Albemarle County Police Department to be used countywide

you know the signs where it says how fast you're going and what your speed is and everything so that is an attempt to also help control with the speeding and we will continue next year regarding the legislature to for the installation of photo speed cameras it's the only way in our rural roads to keep people safe keep people from crashing keep people from dying so that's uh hopefully that'll go better next year

So that's all for me.

Thank you.

I want to echo again some of the comments of the other supervisors.

Mr. Henry, Colonel Bien, you know your participation today demonstrates the leadership throughout the commonwealth, not just our county.

And Albemarle County does lead the commonwealth, so thank you very much for your service there.

Today is a day also to again thank Mr. Henry, Michael Kolf, and Jason Enofuentes from our broadband

accessibility and affordability office because they not only helped coordinate and prepare the testimony and submissions for Albemarle County, but they worked with five other regional counties in order to ensure that we presented the strongest possible message to the FCC this morning.

And Supervisor Malek, we appreciate your joining in with your testimony, which was exceptional.

And I believe that we have been able to demonstrate to the FCC the significance of the real situation here on the ground.

and that will provide relief.

Mr. Richardson, I've already given thanks to your financial department for their work leading up to your presentation today.

I'd also like to take just a moment, Mr. Walker, and talk about your community development department.

When meeting with the Scottsville Planning Commissioner, Fred Missell, last week, I was reminded just how hard those people were because they not only work

They do commission meetings.

They do board of supervisor meetings.

They do CAC meetings.

And all of these take place after hours when most people have been able to go home for the day.

So the dedication that that office has demonstrated to our community does need to be recognized and cannot be overlooked.

So Mr. Walker, please express to your staff, your subordinates there, the work that they have done.

No, ma'am Chair Price, there is nothing else from the staff at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Richardson.

Anything from any other supervisor?

Then board, we will adjourn till March the 2nd, 2022 at 1 o'clock p.m.

That will be an electronic meeting pursuant to ordinance number 20-A16, an ordinance to ensure the continuity of government during the COVID-19 disaster.

Information on how to participate in the meeting will be posted on the Albemarle County website, Board of Supervisors homepage,

and on the Albemarle County calendar.

Thank you all very much.

Mr. Morris, thank you for handling all of the duties today by yourself from the clerk's office.

And with that, good afternoon, everybody.