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From YouTube: Board Wrap-Up: Budget Guidance & ARPA
Description
A wrap-up of decisions made at Arlington County Government’s October 2021 Board meeting.
A
Welcome
back
to
county
board
wrap
up,
and
this
month's
big
story,
which
is
the
board's
budget
guidance
and
how
to
use
those
federal
rescue
plan
funds.
I'm
joined
now
by
board
chair
matty
ferrante,
as
well
as
board
member
takas
carantonis.
Thank
you
both
for
being
here
today.
Now
the
manager
presented
his
recommendations
for
using
the
federal
arpa
american
rescue
plan
act
funds.
What
did
you
think
of
those
proposals
and
what
are
some
of
your
thoughts
both
of
you
on
the
priorities?
We
should
be
looking
at
with
those
funds
sure.
B
So
I
was
really
pleased
with
the
draft,
the
first,
the
manager's
cut
at
the
american
rescue
plan
funding,
and
I'm
really
pleased
that
we'll
now
have
a
month
to
think
through
those
recommendations.
A
lot
of
them
touched
on
priorities
that
I've
heard
board
members
each
identify
that
have
come
from
the
community
and
we're
able
to
do.
We
have
a
little
more
room
now
than
we
did
earlier.
B
In
the
year
we
initially
allocated,
we
had
19
million
in
american
rescue
plan
funds
just
for
the
coveted
response
focused
there
and
we've
been
able
to
to
pair
down
pare
that
down
a
little
bit
to
6
million
that
we
have
available
in
that
american
rescue
plan
bucket
of
funding,
and
we
have
a
lot
of
priorities.
There's
a
pent-up
desire
to
invest
in
our
community.
B
But
it
is
nice.
We
still
have
the
needs
with
kovid,
but
we
have
a
little
more
room
and
so
we're
all
eager
to
work
on
those
recommendations.
With
respect
to
that
bucket
of
funding
that
the
manager
put
forward
over
the
coming
month,
we'll
hear
from
our
community
and
then
in
november,
we'll
make
some
more
decisions
about
where
we
allocate
and
what
we're
going
to
do.
With
that
american
rescue
plan
funding.
We've
got
a
lot
of
other
pieces
to
the
budget
picture,
and
I
know
a
shared
priority
of
you
both
of
ours.
B
C
Mean
the
one
one
salient
piece
of
the
conversation
right
now
is
that
the
county
manager,
the
current
merger's
proposal
and
and
the
board's
approval
of
it,
is
structured
in
four
priority
areas.
Right
one
is
housing
assistance,
the
other
is,
is
community
recovery,
the
other
is
equity
and
disadvantaged,
neighborhoods
and
transit
and
transportation.
C
So
within
these
buckets,
I
think
that
there
is.
These
are
kind
of
kind
of
the
four.
For
you
know,
pieces
of
of
a
priority
framework
within
this
conversation
is
happening
right
now.
I
I
would
say
that
you
know
we
still
have
pieces
that
we
know
from
from
before.
Like
eviction
prevention,
like
you,
know
the,
but
we
also
have
new
things
like,
for
example,
we
promote
the
condition
assessment
for
all
our
affordable
housing
units.
We
invest
something
in
tenant
landlord
dispute
resolution.
C
We
we
have
not
forgotten
that
we
have
to
support
small
businesses
and
the
business
program.
That
does
that
we
we
care
about
workforce
development
and
then
we
have
you
know
the
an
important
piece
was:
the
expansion
of
the
crisis
intervention
center,
which
is
a
major
public
health
response
of
our
county
food
insecurity.
Child
care
was
a
big
discussion
and
I
think
our
colleague,
ms
crystal,
has
brought
some
you
know.
C
Creative
thinking
forward
for
this
homeless
services,
digital
equity,
critical,
other
critical
community
needs
something
that
is
what
was
also
new
in
in
the
in
the
proposal
was
fair
reductions
for
for
students,
for
you
know
who
who
would
who
we
would
like
to
entice
to
ride
public
transportation,
the
art
buses,
the
art
system
and
and
of
course,
so.
The
also
also
fair
reductions
for
those
members
of
our
community
who
are
on
low,
moderate
income,
and
we
want
to
bring
back
as
riders
in
our
public
transportation
system.
A
B
Well,
we
stayed
the
course
on
the
health
and
safety
issues
that
have
to
continue
to
be
our
priority.
For
the
first
time,
I've
seen
a
couple
of
reports
delta
is
coming
down,
but
we
know
that
more
variants
are
possible,
so
health
and
safety,
and
a
lot
of
the
priorities
that
takus
mentioned
eviction.
Prevention
continue
to
be
in
our
budget
guidance
for
next
the
budget.
That
starts
next
july.
B
But
we
also
took
a
pretty
unusual
step
of
putting
into
our
guidance
that
we
will
make
some
investments
in
our
greatest
resource,
which
is
our
county
employees.
And
so
we
committed
to
at
least
4.25
percent
in
merit,
pay
increases
for
all
of
our
employees
and
at
least
6.5
for
our
public
safety
employees
starting
next
july,
and
so
that
is
I've
not
heard
that
that's
been
done
in
the
county
board's
budget
for
the
last
decade.
B
Even
before
that,
I've
not
heard
that
that's
been
done,
but
we
feel
it's
so
important
to
recognize
and
keep
and
value
our
employees,
because
they
are
the
lifeblood
of
the
the
county's
services
to
our
residents.
And
so
that
was
a
key
piece
to
the
guidance
and
we
also
took
a
couple
of
other
steps
in
the
shorter
term
that
are
pretty
important,
that
I
know
takas
you
and
I
both
supported
with
respect
to
investing
in
and
all
our
employees
come
january.
First.
C
We
have
been
very
careful
during
the
last
couple
of
years.
The
the
pandemic
alone
has,
you
know,
has
brought
a
lot
of
uncertainty,
economic
uncertainty,
but
now
that
we
have
a
more
of
a
predictable
economic
outlook,
that
doesn't
mean
that
the
economic
outlook
is
brilliant
or
better,
it's
actually
flat,
but
it's
more
predictable,
less
risky.
We
can
address
this.
These
issues
with
with
you
know
more
assertiveness,
and
we
do
so.
The
guidance
to
the
county
manager
is
that
that
said,
that
doesn't
mean
that
every
everything
else
is
is
less
important.
C
C
All
this
is
included
in
the
guidance,
and
I
think
that
this
is
a
good
document
for,
for
you
know,
county
leadership
to
administrative
leadership,
to
to
start
working
on
a
budget
for
the
fiscal
year
23,
which
this
year,
mr
chair,
I
have
to
say
congratulations
that
we
started
it
earlier,
so
we
have
more
time
to
work
with
the
community
on
it.
That's.
A
Right,
that's
right,
and
you
mentioned
tacos
the
climate
change
and
sustainability
issues.
You
both
have
used
the
phrase.
A
whole
of
government
approach
to
client
to
facing
climate
change.
Tell
me
a
little
bit
of
what
you
mean
by
that.
I
know
that's
a
real
hot
button
issue
for
many
of
our
community
members.
B
Well,
we're
seeing
nationally
that
it's
the
number
of
people
impacted
by
climate
related
events
has
percentage,
has
just
gone
way
up.
There's
estimates
that
two-thirds
to
four-fifths
of
americans,
they
themselves
will
be
impacted
by
a
climate
event,
so
we
have
to
take
steps
to
focus
our
work,
so
that
means
essentially
the
county
manager
and
the
executive
leadership
team,
as
well
as
down
through
to
the
department
of
environmental
services,
all
have
to
be
thinking.
B
How
can
we
make
strategic
decisions
to
reach
our
2025
and
2035
goals
so
at
the
top
levels,
but
in
each
of
the
decisions?
So
we've
taken
some
steps
on
electric
vehicles.
We
have
to
take
steps
on
on
buildings,
we're
taking
steps
on
buses
electric
buses,
but
essentially
we
are
trying
to
build
in
that
sustainability
to
every
level
of
our
decision
making
and
and
our
budget
in
particular,
and
so
we're
excited
about
that.
We
also
are
determined
because
this
is
a
big
challenge,
even
though
we've
been
leaders
on
our
environment
for
a
long
time.