Arlington County Government, VA County Board Work Session, 9 Mar 2023

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From YouTube: County Board Work Session - March 9, 2023

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DCPHD, Housing, DHS

A

Okay, we'll call this afternoon's work session to order Welcome to our third budget work session of the FY 24 budget cycle. This is Christian Dorsey, chair of the board, presiding and joined by members, Katie Crystal, Matt, difrante and Takis Karen tonis.

A

We expect Vice chair Garvey shortly today, we're going to hear presentations from our department of community planning, Housing and Development, as well as our department of human services, and we will spend extensive time covering our housing program, which cross-cuts both departments and we'll also hear from several representatives from advisory commissions who have workflows that coalign with these departments, as always, are going to be opportunities for board members to engage in discussion and ask questions and for those of you who are interested.

A

All of the information about this year's operating budget proposal can be found at the budget and finance page at the County's website. At arlingtonva.us. With that, kick us off. Mr Schwartz.

B

Thank you, I'm, going to turn it over to a person. You may recognize from the note I sent to you on Friday afternoon from manager notes. uh A younger version was included in that photo, but here is the current version of Claude Williamson. Thank.

C

You Mr Schwartz good afternoon: everyone, yes, I, am Claude Williamson I'm, the director of the Department of Community planning, Housing and Development and I'm here today to present the fy24 budget for cphd just to remind the board. The mission of cphd is to promote the Improvement conservation and revitalization of Arlington's physical and social environment.

C

The Department's made up of six major divisions, including planning, which is overseen by our planning director Anthony fusarale housing with Ann Venezia as our housing director, the neighborhood services division led by chickwe najoku zoning is overseen by our zoning administrator, Arlo Volo Inspection Services, with Chief Building, official Sharia, Miri and Cynthia Hernan, who oversees our business Operations Division, which includes HR budget and Technology services under the director's office.

C

We also have this research and strategic initiatives group led by Jill hunger and our Communications and engagement team led by Erica, Moore and I, just want to thank them for their hard work this year and their leadership and I also want to thank everyone in cphd as well foreign getting into the budget proposal I'd like to share some of our Department's major recent accomplishments.

C

Since we last met back in March as well as some key work, I also want to share some key work items that will be coming forward this year and I also want to recognize all the hard work of all the volunteers of our commissions and those from the larger Arlington Community who participated in our processes. These efforts would not have been successful without their involvement in terms of housing investment.

C

We added 234 new, committed, affordable units to the roles and the rehab and affordability extension of more than 450 calves as part of our yearly inspections and with additional money that was given to us in FY 23 we're inspecting an additional 2 000 calf units which will be completed by this spring for planning and our growth management efforts. The County board approved four site plans, which generated more than 152 million in community benefits. We expect another 25 million coming forward through three additional site plans. Before the end of the fiscal year.

C

We also completed three major long-range planning efforts by adopting the Pentagon City sector plan, the Clarendon sector plan and the courthouse West special Club study. We have been investing in our neighborhoods as well through the Arlington neighborhoods program, by completing four Street and intersection projects totaling over 2.9 Million Dollars. We also launched the historic preservation fund, which is a pilot grant program, soliciting HP projects that range from education and awareness programs to bricks and mortar projects, and for our permitting and inspection efforts.

C

We issued approximately 12 000 permits and completed close to 50 000 inspections, totaling more than 14 million square feet of construction.

C

And finally, we added building and trade permits to our build to our permit Arlington system last summer and just just launched certificate of occupancy permits at the end of February.

C

Although not an exhaustive list and Anthony's going to provide a little bit more detail on this in his presentation, uh more specifically to planning division efforts, I just wanted to briefly share some of the key work items that will be coming forward this year and possibly into next from our department.

C

We have currently 13 active site plans in the queue plus four additional conceptual site plans that have been submitted, we're also anticipating several more throughout the coming year. These numbers are Way Beyond what we typically experience.

C

In addition, there are a number of projects that will be coming forth for County Board consideration in the top fall time frame, such as the regional, fair housing plan plan, Langston Boulevard, which also includes land use and Zoning tools, the historic preservation plan which hasn't been updated since 2006 and the home ownership study staff will continue to make progress and meet Milestones related to Crystal houses. The food study bar Croft, Redevelopment and Renovations, and the county managers initiative around Market resiliency.

C

Now, in terms of our work related to equity, the Department's been very active on many fronts: we've continued to participate in the county-wide race and Equity training modules. In addition, cphd's extended management team has received the equity mindset training offered last year. We've also completed work related to the racial history timeline and the creation of demographic dashboards. In the last several months, we've partnered with DPR on the Let's Talk About it series covering topics such as words matter and cultural appropriation.

C

In terms of organizing, we established a more formal, cbhd racial Equity committee, representing all divisions and groups in the department. One of the first tasks is to start work on a racial Equity strategic plan for the Department that includes goals, strategies and projects that that Advance Equity throughout our department in terms how we're operationalizing Equity objectives staff is using the race and ethnicity, dashboard and the racial Equity lens tool.

C

In our plans and our reports, we have initiated the Broadband study and homeownership study and will be bringing forward zoning and Club proposals related to missing middle at the March County board. Meeting.

C

All of these efforts have major implications regarding equity for Arlington, we're also expanding our Outreach efforts for civic engagement and getting new and diverse voices in our planning processes, and we also brought back an in-person permit Arlington center that can assist in digital Permitting Services for those who might not be able to have access or capabilities from their own homes and finally, we'll continue to assess efforts as work continues. This will be an important element to the department, strategic planning efforts moving forward now getting into the FY 24 budget.

C

um This cphd proposed budget I believe is responsive to the needs and priorities of Arlington County we're proposing strategic reductions in the general fund, with the goal of having minor impacts to the work that we do. In addition, with respect to our federal allocations, we anticipate anticipate level funding from last year and due to pressures on the Development Fund, we're proposing increases to fees that allows us to sustain it into future years and finally, we continue to apply an equity lens on the reductions and the requests that are recommended in this proposal.

C

The general fund, the general fund, supports the planning, housing and Neighborhood Services divisions and a portion of code enforcement in ISD.

C

On this slide, there are two things that I'd like to point out: there's a 54 increase in revenue for fy24, which reflects an increase in anticipated planning applications and a 5.2 percent inflationary increase to planning fees associated with the employee cost index, which is also known as the ECI.

C

This ECI has been applied to cphd fees before and ensures that the fees keep Pace with the annual increases associated with the cost of employees, salaries and benefits, and two this proposed budget includes the reduction of a management analyst position, an associate planner position and the transfer of a code enforcement position from the general fund to the Development Fund, all of which I'll discuss in a little bit more detail in the coming slides.

C

So in developing these reduction proposals, the department took into account impacts to Service delivery opportunities around vacancies focused on discretionary areas and looked at organizational efficiencies in terms of budget reductions. We have five proposals that I'd like to share with you today. The first one is the elimination of a vacant management analyst position. This position provides General administrative support to the director's office and the business Operations Division, and the chief race and Equity officer in the county manager's office.

C

With this elimination, the responsibilities will need to be moved to another administrative position in the planning division. This further stretches staff capacity to absorb the administrative responsibilities for those respective work units. Our next proposal is transferring a code enforcement inspector position from the general fund into the Development Fund. This position enforces state and local property related codes. There's no impact to service by this move, and the only change is really the funding source.

C

However, in order to offset the financial impact to the Development Fund, a current vacant over strength, inspector Position will continue to be held vacant, resulting in slightly longer inspection periods. Our next proposal is to eliminate a vacant associate planner position in the comprehensive planning section in the planning division. This reduction will result in reduced capacity to complete work projects in the planning, division's annual work plan plan.

C

In the end, if the County Board accepts this reduction, certain projects may need to be uh may need more time to be completed, or the start date may end up being later down the road. Our fourth proposal is to reduce the consultant Services budget in historic preservation program. This reduction will require the department to re-prioritize various historic preservation initiatives in the department, including the update to the historic resources inventory.

C

Final proposal for the general fund is reduction in non-personnel items such as computer software licenses, Printing and computer equipment. This reduction will require staff and the community to adapt to less print materials and will need to be more strategic in our use of certain software and Technology throughout the department.

C

The Community Development Fund. This fund helps support our community development and affordable housing efforts in the housing division. There are federal and state funds which include cdbg, home and csbg.

C

So there's two things I want to point out, as it relates to the 45 change related to expenses and revenues on this Slide. The FY 23 revised budget reflects our regular allocations, 450 000 in projected program income and our home ARP funding, which is around two and a half million dollars. The FY 24 proposed removes the one-time home ARP funding and assumes level regular Federal funding and projected program income.

C

It's important to note that we have until 2030 to use the home ARP funds. What's not used in 23 will be requested to be rolled over into 24.. Currently, cphd and DHS are working to identify projects for these funds also we're also projecting level funding for 24. the future. But the Board needs to know that the future of all federal budgets are unknown, and so our future allocations may be different and finally, the Development Fund, the Development Fund, is made up of development related fees that support the zoning and inspection services division.

C

The fy24 Development Fund budget anticipates a 6.1 percent increase in expenses and a 7.5 percent increase in Revenue in terms of expenses. We're proposing the transfer of a code enforcement position from the general fund into the Development Fund and we're also requesting the conversion of three unbudgeted temporary positions to go permanent. These temporary positions are currently filled.

C

They include three construction planning examiners in ISD and a zoning inspector ISD and Zoning rely on these positions to meet the increasing needs of our customers, and we expect that this need will continue into the future in terms of Revenue to keep the fund healthy and sustainable. We're proposing the following fee increases a 5.2 percent ECI inflationary increase, similar to what's being applied to planning fees which I mentioned before, and we're also proposing a six percent increase to the indirect cost surcharge to ISD fees.

C

These indirect costs are paid to the general fund every year and reflect the work. Other departments do to further support the activities of the highest of ISD and zoning. We're also proposing the establishment of a 21 indirect cost surcharge for zoning fees. The indirect cost surcharge has never been applied to zoning fees before these combined proposals would properly cover the increasing costs associated associated with overhead expenses.

C

In addition to further our goals for sustainable development fund, together with DMF and Des, were studying our development fees to determine whether our current fees are appropriately recovering costs. Recommendations of that study will be coming forward later this this year and finally, before we leave the Development Fund I just wanted to give you a update on where we are on permanent Arlington, so to remind the County Board. In the past three years, we had three successful phased launches into permit Arlington and we just launched our final public facing application for certificates of occupancy.

C

However, a most complicated phase, which was back last summer for building and trade permits, did not perform as expected due to the high volume of active records, the complexity of the business process and some failures in terms of the data conversion process. As a result, this generated a high demand for technical support and we were unprepared for the volume of requests that occurred. This call caused delays in response times and we regret the impacts that this had on our customers.

C

To address this issue, we shifted senior developers to help support customer needs. We added four temporary staff to help to our help desk poster user guides and how-to videos to the public website, and we applied the lessons learned to the most recent launch of certificates of occupancy, which has rolled up really smoothly.

C

We've resolved many issues in the past months and the wait times have reduced, but we're still not back to the Target of one to two day turnaround. The team continues to work on permit permanent fixes within the database to address issues causing the earlier delays. We anticipate that it will take additional time to resolve these issues and meet targets. The permit Arlington team is working very hard and is dedicated to this effort. Addressing customer needs is a priority for this program and for this department.

C

Finally, there is one last thing to mention: I just wanted to let people know about the customer care center pilot that was launched last fall up on the 10th floor. Since then, we've been averaging around 46 customers a week with a five minute average wait time and 14-minute average service time per customer. We plan to move down to the lobby in the late in late March when construction and other efforts are complete.

C

um That concludes the departmental presentation. I'm going to turn this over to Anthony fusarelli who's, going to provide a brief summary of the preliminary planning division work plan. In the event, there are specific questions related to that so Anthony.

D

Thank you Claude good afternoon, Anthony fusarelli happy to be here today and honored to lead the excellent planning team here for Arlington Virginia this afternoon. I'll briefly share a high level summary of key considerations and priorities for the 2023-2024 planning division. uh Preliminary work program. This is the first of three slides to my presentation this afternoon. However, I will note that there is a more detailed 10-page document depicting the proposed work program and that is available with the agenda for today's work session and I.

D

Believe um you all are familiar with that information in terms of process. The proposed work program was shared with our internal partners for review and feedback. It was also presented at the February 28th uh meeting of the long-range planning committee of the Planning Commission and I won't be covering their specific feedback in my prepared remarks, but happy to address any questions that might arise as part of the larger conversation before uh speaking to this year's top priorities.

D

I'd like to review just six key considerations that directly shaped and informed the formulation of the preliminary work program. First is the need to timely, manage and complete our work on non-discretionary Services, especially for site plan and use permit development reviews, in addition to admin, changes, other use, permit applications and related matters.

D

Shifting to some of our discretionary work, we're placing a high priority on completing several important long-range planning efforts that are currently in progress.

D

Third, as we complete these long-range planning efforts- and this was a message conveyed last year- we will be shifting greater attention and focus to addressing future zoning studies on a variety of topics in an effort to get our regulations and codes more current and in better alignment with our established visions and for the next two points.

D

These really relate more to how we do our work both today and moving forward on racial Equity We are continuing to build our capacity and capabilities in-house in applying a racial Equity lens in many aspects of our work, including how we select our work, the scoping of that work, the processes for undertaking that work and, ultimately, the outcomes. An important example of this um recently or very present includes the racial Equity analysis that staff developed for incorporation with our work as part of the missing middle housing study staff reports.

D

When it comes to broader engagement. It's also important to note our continued adaptation and adjustments to hybrid meeting and public engagements, as is being done elsewhere across the organization, but in the past year we have worked closely with the Planning Commission leadership on process refinements, especially related to how their subcommittees operate. We believe these have yielded positive outcomes, but it's also important to note that they do require additional administrative time, not just for staff, but also for Commissioners as well.

D

And finally, we are very excited about taking on a broader, comprehensive plan review effort later this year, especially with how that might inform our areas of focus for future work programs and if we move to the final slide.

D

While the read ahead package online presents much more detail and complete information. I do want to showcase here a number of our top priorities. As currently proposed um again on the non-discretionary side, we will be focusing on the timely management and review of over a dozen active site, special exception site plan and use permit development applications along with just as many, if not more applications that we currently anticipate and may be additionally filed later this year or in 2024.

D

this this. This work really comprises a significant component of our non-discretionary work portfolio that we must complete in a timely fashion.

D

Next, up this month, our team is excited to present General Andrews plan and zoning ordinance amendments resulting from the missing middle housing study for the board's commit consideration, which, just last night, received a recommendation from the Planning Commission in this room. If these amendments are approved in the spring, our team will be preparing informational documents and establishing the permitting and monitoring framework necessary to be ready by the effective date, as well as addressing other items.

D

Another important long-range planning effort, our work on plan Langston Boulevard, is on track for us to bring forward a final plan and supporting implementation strategies to the commission and the board for consideration in action later this year. Work on the future of outdoor dining study is also progressing. Current efforts largely focused on developing updated guidelines and and considering what potential regulatory amendments uh we want to bring forward to ultimately incorporate more flexibility for broader outdoor dining environments, where supported by appropriate environmental conditions.

D

With respect to Barcroft, our planning team looks forward to continuing to work with our internal partners and the gyro Lynch team to review their Master financing and development plan, and we anticipate a more detailed update to stakeholders next month.

D

Turning to special glove studies, our general land use plan studies, our team is targeting commission and Board review of the 2000 North Glebe Road study in May and complete, if completed at that time. This should release a capacity needed to move on to the next tier 2 special glove study currently in the queue progress uh continues on another key aspect uh noted in last year's work program, which involves a phased approach to several zoning studies, really in partnership with staff in environmental services and Parks and Recreation that really address important aspects of our public lands.

D

Whether it is the public spaces master plan implementation, whether it is better facilitating and accommodating storm water management objectives and solutions, as well as looking ahead to better managing County use of lands for essential services and operations. So we have been phasing our work over time and continuing to make progress in that Arena.

D

Finally, moving down the list, we have initiated discussions and thinking within cphd and with our partners internally on looking at the next phase of the child care initiative, really thinking through how to make the best use of some resources. We have included with last year this year's fiscal 23 adopted budget um to to address the important needs of of that work and then, finally, as a noted as a key consideration earlier, we're very excited about the work we'll undertake on the comprehensive plan review really to identify areas where future updates would be helpful.

D

We Believe to the comprehensive plan that would help inform future work programs and really focusing on how best to incorporate maybe some elements that perhaps aren't as present in the comprehensive plan as perhaps they they should be so with. That concludes my brief summary for this afternoon, be happy to address any questions within the context of a broader discussion. Thank.

A

You Mr fusarelli and we'll get to that in a moment. Thank you.

A

Mr Williamson we're now going to take a little bit of a break to hear from our commissions, who are associated with the work that's been presented thus far like to invite DaVinci Patel, chair of our Planning Commission and Omari Davis, who I also saw back there, chair of our historical Affairs and landmark review board that come on up to the table and I think we're joined Ms J by Laura malikoff, the chair of Sid Sac, virtually and I think why don't we start with Ms Malakoff, move on to Mr Davis and then have you back clean up, Ms Patel at work.

A

E

uh Greetings: everyone um again. This is Lara malikoff, chair of the Community Development citizens advisory committee. I want to first thank the County board for its support of the many organizations that meet the Housing and Community Development needs of Arlington's low and moderate income residents through the Community Development Fund.

E

It might not be the most highly visible funding source, but many of the programs that support the County's underserved residents receive funding through this program.

E

So, along with County staff, the Community Development citizens advisory committee works hard to ensure that families have access to the programs that help them help them to secure and maintain housing, avoid homelessness, achieve economic mobility and Foster neighborhoods sustainability.

E

So this past year the committee reviewed scored and ranked over 40 applications, and we've worked with staff to formulate the Community Development Fund budget recommendation being discussed. Today we will be reviewing the budget proposal along with the fy24 action plan at our upcoming April meeting, and we intend to write a letter recommending approval in our review of the applications for funding um each of the committee.

E

Members really brought their experience as County residents and representatives for the low and moderate income residents of their communities, and we really place the focus on reviewing applications with an eye toward diversity and equity, and our goal is to recommend projects for funding that best meet the needs of the community and recommend organizations that have the capacity to really be good.

E

Stewards of the funding, um so I just want to extend my thanks for supporting this work and I wanted to finally note that every year since act hosts a Community Development bus tour, where we visit and highlight programs funded through the Community Development Fund, so I'd like to personally invite County leadership to participate in this year's event, which will be on May 3rd, and thank you very much for your support and for your time. Thank you. Thank.

A

You Ms melakoff I, hope you can stay on if there are any questions or conversations that you'd like to opine on, but next Mr Mr Davis, please, yes,.

F

Thanks, thank you uh good afternoon. My name is Omari Davis I'm, the chair of the historical Affairs and landmark reward I just want to thank uh uh County, Manager Schwartz and on the board members today for time to us, speak and um I just wanted to sort of uh Jump Right In um again, uh thank uh I want to thank you all again for the opportunity actually to to share and I'll discuss um different things um at the days of budget work session.

F

um So interview of the f524 budget on behalf of the hlrb um I was we were. Unfortunately, uh dismayed ought to receive to us to see proposed cuts to our Consultants consultant Services.

F

Well, the amount of the cuts is minimal relative to the overall budget. uh These Cuts will have an outsized impact on on the effectiveness of other sort of uh preservation program. First and foremost, these Cuts will delay implementation. The force coming forthcoming circle circle. Circle circle. Excuse me, preservation, uh master plan along with elements such as conducting new studies and updating historical resources, inventory I, think we'd. All I agree with all all agree that at the HRA uh definitely definitely could understand to be uh updated.

F

I think that the the the biggest issue um without credit without custom master plan at this point is that the master plan is also is said to be uh adopted in the fall, and this will that this this will culminate in a for still coming. You know four years um of of our work in accounts hours of a public input in the making and have the funding cut at this point.

F

Have the thing cut at all this point in the process um is, uh is is almost like uh having the the rug pulled out off from under the plan, um and unfortunately, this this is. This would be um extremely unfortunate, it'll time to not self-defeating to believe and um so see and I guess.

F

uh In addition, this Cuts will also hamper and reduce social preservation status capacity to conduct archaeological archaeological monitoring, as well as well as as well as the development of uh Circle markers, the latter of which is the most visible means by which the public engages with with the HP program limited. Limiting this Outreach and limiting uh the profile of historic preservation will uh will affect the way that is seen in in their community and I.

F

Finally, I want to end on on a high point: I want to thank Academy manager, Schwartz and also the board for the foreign.

F

Preservation fund uh this fund for this fund presents Arlington with it with a unique and Innovative opportunity.

F

To approach preservation from their Grassroots up um and and and the fund also allows our communities. Excuse me the also empowers communities to accept priorities and gather what preservation looks like for them. The fund has been at the fund has been fun, has an added benefit of extending the expertise of historic preservation staff um throughout the community during time of uh intensive growth and development uh in the county.

F

So I want to thank you again uh for your time to speak about the um fy24 budget, and please do consider the outside impacts that this that this um roughly minor cut, will have the sort perturbation program. Thank you for your time today. Thank.

A

You Mr Davis and if you'll stay tuned, I know that that will be the subject of at least one question during our conversation. So don't go too far and Miss Patel.

G

Okay, good share Dorsey uh uh colleagues, members of the of the County Board County Manager.

G

On behalf of the Planning Commission, we appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today about the county managers proposed FY 2024 operating budget of particular concern for the commission. Is the elimination of the vacant associate planner position with cphd.

G

We agree with staff's analysis that the impact will be a reduction in the overall capacity and resources of the comprehensive planning Division and to support projects identified in the division's annual work program, thereby resulting in delays and completing Project work staff is busy. That's probably an understatement. The staff is busy. In fact, the most recent forecasting document for 2023 shows approximately 34 projects, many of which will go into 2024.. There are no signs of projects slowing down and impact us to the contrary.

G

There are a number of current planning processes that once approved, are certain to open Pathways to additional development applications, so eliminating an associate planner Position will have Downstream implications. For example, plan Langston Boulevard is strongly encouraged to come before the Planning Commission for approval and implementation in the third quarter. We know, however, that plb is a discretionary project. A non-discretionary project that many in the community, including myself that are hoping to see, is the VHC project and that will be on Carlin Springs Road.

G

Both plb and bhc are important in their own right and should be prioritized. One has the possibility of meeting the County's, affordable housing needs along the corridor and the other has is able to meet a critical Public Health need without enough staff. Resources are strained and parallel priorities are unnecessary, unnecessarily become competing priorities. We strongly recommend that that not happen and that the associate planner position be retained.

G

Additionally, throughout the pandemic, we've seen that staff's implementation of expanded Community engagement initiatives and with the missing middle housing study the implementation of a racial Equity analysis framework. Those we've seen come through and we are hoping to have them expanded, we're blessed to have an Engaged Community. However, all of us know that not every arlingtonian is at the table and in order to in order to thoughtfully design processes and rosters, to ensure all voices are heard and to develop additional skills to intentionally solicit opinions from those most impacted from our planning processes.

G

We must ensure that staff has the capacity for this additional Outreach engagement and study. The Planning Commission adopted its Equity statement in 2020, and this past week we heard from so many from our community on how we can honor and operationalize our commitment to equity. This Planning Commission centers equity in all aspects of its work, and it recognizes that planning staff is an essential partner in providing the resources necessary to ensure expanded opportunities are available to invite everyone to the table and elimination of that associate.

G

Planner position threatens to compromise our ability to not only reimagine inclusive processes, but also to implement them so I. Thank you for your time and attention and I am available for any questions that you may have. Thank.

A

You Miss Patel and colleagues. Why don't we have some questions on what has been presented thus far. I'll start us off.

A

So as it relates to the Community Development Fund, can you give us a sense, Mr Williamson? How much money is left unspent from the home art funds.

C

It's my understanding that those funds have not been spent yet at all at all, so.

A

The entire tire balance is available and Ms Malakoff I think you said it's April that we're getting those recommendations about.

E

That's correct: uh our meeting will be the first Wednesday of April and we will provide those immediately after that. Well.

A

We look, we look forward to that and a question just for you. uh While we have you as you've sort of looked at the uh expressions of community need. Are you seeing any emerging Trends over the last year that we should be thinking about in advance of preparing for your recommendations.

E

um I think by Mary Trend that we are, we are increased, increase, request for funding and the subsequent conversations among the committee about how we formulate our recommendations to um do our best to accommodate the increased amount of funding and evaluate programs accordingly um and continue to debate amongst ourselves. The merits of funding meeting recommending funding to be met um in the entirety of the request versus kind of spreading funding more widely to with the intention of reaching more um beneficiaries, um and so, in short, it.

E

We have been observing a trend in an increased request for funding across the board.

A

So not necessarily new needs, but uh need for funding of existing needs more deeply than before. Okay, thank you. Thank you. So much um I'll spread it around Mr, Karen Thomas.

H

Thank you Mr chair and thank you for the comprehensive.

H

Report here, I know that there are many many things that I have to say: I felt a little bit better last year when we had the planning uh you know session separate from this session. I think it's a lot in one bucket I think we should be returning to this format, but just to pick up where Miss Patel left it. So can we explain a little bit better?

H

uh Why and how are we going to digest the reduction in one associate planner, given the the the work that is in front of us and I've not only been referring to Langston Boulevard and implementation pressure on that and uh housing study will be coming to this. We have also the bar Croft process, which affects thousands of households as well. So um can you elaborate a little bit on.

C

Yeah and then I might turn it over to Anthony to to assist, um but in terms of identifying that that position, um if you were calling my presentation, there were lots of considerations that we have to take into account in terms of when we're in reduction mode, and some of those considerations were really about um focusing on discretionary areas versus non-discretionary discretionary areas and vacancies, and there was an opportunity if you want to look at it as an opportunity, but there was a vacancy in the comprehensive planning section and um recognizing it's also a discretionary area.

C

You know these. These I would say on the current planning side is the non-discretion areas where legally we're required to respond to development applications? The long-range planning side of things is a little bit more. Discretionary I was willing, as director looking to to decide that that cut would probably be impactful, but probably a little bit easier, because there is a vacancy. We wouldn't have to necessarily have to identify a position. That's already filled, so there were different variables that we took into account. As we looked at that.

H

Thank you, I. Don't envy you I understand it's.

C

Very challenging that.

H

You are operating in in a.

C

H

Environment I was trying and I know that it's a vacant position today we haven't been it.

C

H

Vacant, uh what I didn't remember is what did we expect from this position? Why did we have this position in the first place, so I, I and I was trying to see when, when this position was approved and and put into into uh uh our you know steady stream of Finance the tax supported stream of financing. uh So we had something in mind we and- and this hasn't changed so much uh if, if anything I understand, it is to certain degree discretionary, um but I just see that the pressure is um as as high there.

C

Is high pressure? Yes,.

H

And I have no I mean I, have the highest respect for the effort that staff has been. uh You know the work that you have been doing, the entire department has been working very very hard and the the communities is expecting even a lot more. So this is why I'm concerned just thank.

A

You I think this is a useful conversation to do what is our periodic PSA to the broader Community about when we talk discretionary non-discretionary, it's not an expression of importance, it's an expression of what we are required by law to consider and that we cannot put off versus what we choose to do for our community and at least in terms of that Matrix they're. The the interests of our community and pursuing bodies of work that are affirmed through this board are of preeminent importance, but they cannot supersede what is required to be addressed through.

A

um You know, through our our planning division through our cphd division and this conversation about capacity making sure it's right size to deal with both what we are required and state mandated to do versus what it is we want to do is a key part of this conversation. Miss Crystal.

I

Well put in speaking of discretionary items that have garnered our attention. um Thank you so much for all the staff for the presentation. um It is really a reminder of how large a body of work this, relatively speaking, smaller Department, actually manages, and um thank you to our commission chairs, who are with us today. I did want to pick up on the um comments uh chairman Davis made about the hlrb's concerns on the consultant Services.

I

What I'm trying to understand is um that sort of what is the Baseline when we are not for Consulting Services, when we are not in the middle of a comprehensive plan, element update, so I think we've seen, for example, that we we often bring in Consulting Services um at the start of a you know, major Master planning exercise or, um like some Boulevard, comes to mind right, another sort of comp plan element and then that kind of naturally tapers down right, and so, if we are driving towards a conclusion of the um uh historic preservation master plan, you know is this sort of a return to baseline or does it represent sort of the loss of what has been ongoing for many years and is kind of critical to do uh the the the day in and day out, work of the story, preservation, program, yeah.

C

um I might turn this over to chickway, but just if I want to add um this comment, um the the Consulting funds are ongoing and this would be a removal of those. We typically don't use these types of Consulting funds on something like the historic preservation. Master Plan update those are used in other Fashions. These funds also assist staff into in doing additional in the development of markers and any archaeological studies that we might need to do along the way, there's some years that we do archaeological studies other years that we don't.

C

But these are what these funds are typically used for. Chickway I, don't know if you wanted to add right.

J

Here so wherever you are right.

F

J

You uh you basically put the nail on the head and for archeology purposes for marker purposes, any types of studies that come up throughout the year that was mentioned, the HRI I mean that's one of the major implementation items from the from the historic preservation master plan, so that would be funded for through that as well, and that's probably going to be multi-phase project. So.

I

So that am I right than just the Consulting monies are really for sort of a specialized set of knowledge that we don't require correct. Okay, thank you.

K

To deferenti, thank you, Mr, chair, um I, guess I'll.

K

Just note that, on the on the association associate, planner I know that I think that there are a couple of vacancies that you're still filling, and so um with this position, I guess I'm interested over the coming months of exploring whether there's a it's I know it would be ongoing funding, but whether there's a way that we can make it a half year and then ongoing I know that's not a fiscal savings that the manager that we most love, because it would still be an ongoing cost.

K

But I don't know if you had any thoughts on on the timing for because it takes time to find that right fit for the other two positions that I believe are still being filled or almost or may have been filled. Do you have any thoughts on the timing for how long it might take to fill vacancy type positions um like that and I? Don't you know you don't have to speculate, but um how close are we? If it's going to be January 1st before we could fill this position anyway?

K

I might be interested in a halftime position. Okay, yes,.

D

So I'll do my best to address as the question and, um if not, we can try again but um just actually appreciate the question, because um something I didn't note in my remarks was that currently I think in total we have 30 ftes. If my numbers are right within the planning division uh right now we have four vacancies.

D

um Now, that's just there's ebb and natural ebb and flow, and so we are actively three of those vacancies. We are um actively moving forward with filling them as quickly as we can that fourth, vacancy is that we are not working to fill, is um the associate planner position. That is a proposed cut um in terms of the timeline for how long it takes to fill those vacancies. You know I, think we've um done I've done, I think we've done well to um timely, fill one or two other recent vacancies over the past few years.

D

I don't have an exact number or timeline in front of me, but we once we know that vacancy is going to happen or has happened. We move immediately towards filling.

K

It sure that's great I, just that's, really helpful I'm, mindful that you can to find these positions that can take different times, and so that's just signaling a level of Interest I'll yield. I have additional questions all.

A

Right yeah we'll give everyone opportunities for multiple rounds by.

L

Stewart Garvey yeah, thank you, apologies for being late, I, don't know if you talked about neighborhood college, but I was delighted to see that with my sessions and it's going way up, it's just a great you know. I could talk about how good I think that is for our community. But thank you very much. I comes on board ing.

L

Is that a function of you have the more recording you have I, don't know, and then I noticed that there was um clearing. That was one thing and then there was like more hoarding, but no less clearing. So what what's happening? I'm sure there's something, but it's just not here. Thank you. Mr Amir.

M

On everybody um yeah, we are still doing hoarding and you know I'm not a psychologist, so it's not a function of age. Okay, it's a function of that that psychological uh disorder that causes it in terms of the lean and clean is that the next question that you.

N

M

um We really lost our contracted during covet period, so we didn't have a contractor, but we have resumed that this um at least this this new fiscal year we are in currently, and we have done a several of them, three of them lean and clean, and we are in the process of getting our rfps out and to get a contractor that we can move forward with and.

L

I assume you work in conjunction with DHS. Yes,.

M

We actually, we actually have a team from DHS mental health DHS for housing. Fire department is involved, sometimes child protective services. So it's a it's a combination and Fire Marshal if I mentioned It's a combination, it's combined effort and we have a ongoing hoarding task force that meets regularly. Okay,.

L

Thank you. That's helpful. Just wanted a little more information. Thank you.

A

Thank you uh to begin round two moving back to the historic preservation program, so uh Mr manager we're not continuing the the one-time, historic preservation, funds allocation of 150 in any amount, we're zeroing that out for this year or is there something in it for fy24.

C

um Just to give the board a little bit of history, there were a couple actions that were done: I believe in that FY 23 that generated uh the seed money for the historic preservation fund, which I think we now have around three hundred thousand dollars to do. We are not requesting an additional 150 for fy24 we're in the middle of the pilot pro project.

C

uh More than likely, we will probably be dispersing those FY 23 funds, probably toward the end of this fiscal year or so before, June, and so we will be administering and assessing the pilot program through fy24, so we for that reason we didn't request additional funds, but I can imagine I think we will be requesting funds for fy25.

A

Got it so, just in terms of that calendar Tick Tock, we would need to wait until roughly this year next time to ascertain to give you all the Comfort to actually extend advertising the program for future.

C

That's correct and we want the benefit of assessing the program and the pilot and see what kind of impacts it might have or changes, um and so that's why we thought it was a little too early to request additional funds for fy24. Thank you. Thank.

A

You all right, remembering my order, I think it's Mr Karen Thomas thank.

H

You on on the planning side and Mr frustrial I, guess you you expect that question for me. uh So there is a significant constituent input and last year we had this conversation as well on lot coverage and a study associated with that and I understand that we have now. You have a full plate.

H

No no question about this. So do you see a place where we reasonably? We could align and assure that we can see such a study a beginning.

D

uh Thank you for that. For that question um you are correct right. uh We have one of the top one of the priorities in the war program as a as a consideration was completing some of the major long-range planning efforts, um Beyond, a few that were noted.

D

We still have multi-family reinvestment study and others that are ahead of us that we'd like to conclude soon um so in terms of prospective timing on, you know, thinking about lot coverage and whether it's the scoping of that study and or the undertaking of that study um on the scoping side. You know I think some preliminary things some preliminary thought on that would suggest you know if it would be optimal if we can get through. You know those long-range planning efforts ahead of us this year and next playingston Boulevard.

D

um Some of the special glove studies will still we still have ahead of us, but then also multi-family and reinvestment if and the future of outdoor dining.

D

If we can sort of clear those projects, those major projects off our plate by the end of this year into early next, perhaps then carving out some some time to to scope um what a lot coverage study would be and I think also in relation a lot coverage, um you'll be seeing that part of last night's Planning Commission recommendation was also thinking about, like an f, a floor area ratio approach to low residential neighborhoods as opposed to units per acre or outside.

D

So there may be opportunities to link those two so prospectively, you know scoping some time in 2024, another angle or I think important consideration is: do we want to have the benefit of some data, some development? If, if ehos are approved and and can be permitted later this year, do we want to have some on the ground data in terms of what that's yielding to be able to incorporate into a lot covered study? That is also you know, and the study itself is also a recommendation of the forestry and natural resources plan.

D

So those things coming together, prospectively scoping- you know no earlier than 24 and then maybe coming back for a conversation about when an actual study you know would would be most sensible. Given the timing of ehl.

H

Thank you. I have no doubt that this won't be a short study and I understand that there is a sequence that you would like to have some data from here. We we want to see how the natural resources plan plays out, how we, you know what other kind of requirements will be amassing, and the far approach is also a very interesting. You know. Planning approach in general I would like, though, to encourage to actually be intentional in getting that in putting some priority behind that uh greater than it's visible today.

H

I know that you have it in mind, though. Thank.

A

You so why don't we go ahead and see if there are any perspectives on this particular issue.

L

A

We got an order: oh okay, okay,.

L

Following up, if we could do a consultant, we could hire a consultant to do and and so that, while we kind of figure out the parameters of what we want to do and then, when the data's in we're ready to kind of move forward,.

L

You must have anticipated that question.

D

Well, well, one one very one, very current thought right and I made mention I think earlier to another of our priorities for this year, which is really advancing the child care initiative, phase two, which you know the board incorporated into um last year's, but this year's fiscal budget uh 75 000 in Consultants right. We are here in March, right nine months into the fiscal um just now really having the capacity to begin, the staff conversations that require for scoping which go well beyond cphd Human, Services, Economic, Development, Parks and Recreation.

D

um So I guess briefly put even getting to the point of having Consultants be able to come on board and help scope. That I'm not quite sure. That's all that helpful, especially given the amount of um you know, Arlington, specific and Arlington distinct intelligence that they would need to know and understand. It may, at the end of the day, be more efficient for staff to actually do the scoping than if we decide. If there's a decision to see consultant support to undertake that which it is that we have scoped that that might be an approach.

D

I think we would want to pursue.

L

Okay, I associate myself with Mr Karen Thomas's thoughts that you know I mean we're just hearing a lot about this, so I'd love to figure out a way to move it forward a little bit faster. Thank you, Ms Crystal.

I

um I think that was really well put and I. uh It resonates with me uh the the idea that there are many things we can look to Consultants to do, but I think the biggest challenge. uh Vis-A-Vis lot coverage isn't setting the scope, which is to say collectively, defining as a community what problem we want to solve by changing law coverage and I think not to get too deep in the weeds of something that we will have plenty of time to talk about when I think about. We started out with the missing middle.

I

The there was a pre-scoping community engagement phase and it was so important to just hear what our priorities were to get the scope right and I think about um how adrift we would be had we not even done that work to set the scope and say the things the community cares most about you know is Preservation of neighborhood, look and feel and affordability, and those have been the two things that drove the staff recommendations that we've all as the boarding Community sought to evaluate any proposal against I. Think starting.

I

You know lot coverage without saying: what do we want to change? That coverage to do is probably a recipe for maybe something even more contentious than how we've spent you know the last year or so so um I I am very eager to take up this conversation. I think there are a lot of really interesting ideas.

I

um Some coming out of the Planning Commission, for example, about how to um think differently about density and form throughout are less intensively developed, neighborhoods to serve Community goals, but I think it's just so important that we figure out what those Community goals are first, and so you know it if we can't carve out that time and that space. For that conversation, then I think kind of barreling forward anyway, not that either of you recommending that it would would ultimately lead to some real challenges.

I

All of that said um I think there is one issue where actually we we have defined the problem through a comprehensive Community analysis, which is one forthcoming with the natural resources management plan, and that is the idea of. um Are there ways to adjust lot coverage?

I

You know relatively modestly, and and preserve more trees during uh Redevelopment of those properties. um I know the forestry natural resources. Land has really grappled with this, and some of the tensions and trade-offs. uh I I anticipate that one of the recommendations forthcoming from them might be is likely to be some simple changes and simple changes.

I

Nothing's ever simple when it comes to all coverage, but some some relatively minimal changes around, for example, shifting um uh closer to the the setbacks um smaller in the front yards and they're on the rear yard to protect more tree tree uh growth in the rear yards I would love to make sure that we have the capacity within planning to just take a look at what comes out of Forestry natural resources, see if there's some relatively speaking, quick strike things we can do short of that full scoping and comprehensive Community conversation to see.

I

If we can't you know, change our rules to some degree it to really serve this strongly he'll desire, I think across all sectors of the community, which is to protect trees during Redevelopment of low density properties. So that's sort of my my take overall um uh and I hope. We can we can find a little capacity to pursue that goal if possible.

K

Mr D ferranti. Thank you. Thank you. Mr chair, um I, agree with the point on on consultant services and the scoping um and I agree with the point on the natural resources management plan. But for me, um I think there are a host of legal issues involved. My understanding of the last time we took.

K

We analyzed lot coverage as it took years more than we thought, um but for me a priority, I'm, sort of a third voice that feels like we need to get to this within the next six to 12 months in in for me, in in deeper discussion and I, don't think it has to be I mean we've had mention of far we've got setbacks.

K

um I think the lack of clarity from the board has led to node two by twos that have defined the problem and with the board, and that doesn't mean the community shouldn't have full voice, but I think those are I. Think the time frame for me is shorter and there's a desire at least there's a clear signal. I think from three of us that, within the next six to 18 months, want to dig into part of this I would say that the task of going to a far system is a big source of discussion.

K

That does not feel within our grasp to me in the next six to 18 months, but I'm, mindful that that may be inextricably linked with the setbacks piece, but I want to at least signal that I'm, a third voice. That feels that we need to put this within our reach with in a shorter time frame than than we have and sorry to. I know we'll talk about this more, but thank you. Mr, chair and.

A

Kyle, thank you all I think we need to talk about it much more today and I'll just add my voice to this going.

A

This is extremely difficult, complicated or nuanced layered and everything else and I really think Mr fusarelli's point that we can't just simply think that some other expert is going to be able to do something that reflects what needs to be considered in Arlington and therefore it's going to require staff resources that are already overspent on other areas and there's a proposal to reduce them further, just want to be very clear about where we are so as much as we may believe that this is important or a priority.

A

The task that we have is to provide the resources to make it happen, not simply ask that it be prioritized so over the course of the budget season. If this emerges is something that the board has greater specificity about what it would like to do, we have a responsibility to make sure it's reflected in the capacity in the budget. I'll leave it at that um different topic, all right, we're on to the next round.

A

All right, I think I started I start off, we'll continue that um all of my questions have been asked so Mr Karen, Thomas, yeah.

H

Just briefly in the third round, um the um the the department, the Urban Design Group, that is always very dear to me. uh It's also to a certain degree discretionary, but I think that it its output, is critical for the success uh in many non-discretionary areas, so I'm struggling to to figure out whether we resource it properly, whether we can do more uh or whether the we implement the emphasis in this department in an efficient way to inform uh everything.

H

We we can I I kind of theoretically believe that a a great Urban Design department is a very helpful Tool uh to get everybody. uh You know everybody else, who's working on on these difficult topics or complex topics, I should say to to um to be more efficient in delivery and I want to make sure that we leverage the next out of this department.

A

Does that conclude your questions on this part.

H

Yes, I want to know what.

A

It is a question.

J

H

A question it is a question: I I, I I I tried to see Urban Design being more present in the in the considerations that we make besides other policy considerations, and for me this is extremely important because it conditions a lot how uh you know how scoping functions, how the community uh receives things, how Equity works? That's how this is for me, yeah, really important.

C

Well, um Urban Design, so Urban Design um has come a long way in terms within the planning, Division I, don't know. If people recall that um former board member Jay fazette initiated an Urban Design initiative and which really promoted the importance of good Urban Design in the work that we do from then we did. We have made changes. You know we have an Urban Design Awards, which reflect great quality projects that we have out there in Arlington County, but we also reorganized. We never had an Urban Design section within the planning division we do now.

C

We have three people who support that section overall, I think looking at the planning, Division I think it's very, very efficient, Division and I think we have leaders and great managers in that division that really recognize the the talent not only in the Urban Design Team, but also on the current planning side and comprehensive, comprehensive planning side where we can shift and move certain staff resources and expertise.

C

um We do I think it's understaffed in terms of Urban Design, absolutely I would love to have additional staff resources in that area. Urban Design is very important to me. I know it's very important to this planning director, and so, if that I hope that answers your question, that.

H

That answers it to a certain degree. Do you um do you believe that we should um consider uh improving at least the design Arlington program? Adding some sort of I mean we are giving awards. We're trying to incentivize practitioners here in Arlington to produce better buildings right buildings that look better work better are are friendlier to to our to our goals as a community. So do you think that we have to improve this program? To maybe add a monetary reward or some sort of material.

C

To the Urban Design Awards process, um yeah I'll actually turn I'm.

D

C

D

I I think actually and I.

C

I may have Anthony was actually one of the first people to work this program through right.

D

I I think the lead of our historic preservation program. Cynthia, Leches, Torres and I um helped sort of revive The Design Awards program that was once nested within uh hlrb, and then it became a broader opportunity um so over the number of years that you know 2009-2007 when that was revived, I'm, actually still amazed that we get the level of interest each each I think every other year that we run the program in the applications we get knowing.

D

There is not a monetary award and there still seems to be an appetite and desire to you know, put forth one's great work, seek recognition for it and have it celebrated um so I'm, not sure that it's you know that it's absolutely necessary that it would lead to more applications. I think it's hard to say, um obviously, would depend on the size of the monetary award.

H

Thank you, I was more more, uh you know, thinking of incentivizing people to actually have competitive uh processes for for design Solutions their buildings.

H

You know we had some some criticians, for example, Columbia Pike, the form-based code is interpreted in a very standard way, let's say, and you get a lot of repetition in design choices, because you know the designers have chosen to optimize their time and produce the same design once you know to copy and and paste so maybe I will take it up for a few to see whether we can incentivize a more diverse Diversified approach to this. Thank.

A

You all right, thank you and Miss Crystal next. Thank you.

I

And I just wanted to know sure. I really appreciate your comments, that uh if we are interested in more things, it is now our opportunity, as well as responsibility, to find the resources for them and I also wanted to know thinking that this was it was under my auspices that we gave budget Direction last year.

I

I think it in case anyone needs reminding the reason these cuts are on the table is because this board asked the manager to bring us a budget with a flat tax rate, um and so I I just wanted to say you know, I I know I, see Mr Williamson, we'll see all of our departmental directors. I know there is no departmental director that wants to be before us with cuts, so I just think it's important they're, following through on our Direction uh when we ask these questions, uh that's an important thing to bear in mind.

I

um So I wanted to talk a little bit about uh the the um shift to permanent Arlington online, since we've got you here. Obviously, this has been something on the mind of our community. Recently, I appreciated the the um details that you shared about some of the challenges of of introducing those last phases of permits online uh back in September.

I

One thing that I'm not sure I heard, that seems to be the biggest pain point, at least that I hear from constituents or that has come up in the community, um is the handshake between divisions or departments being a particular challenge. So um you know it's not just what is the customer care I get from the customer care center? It is when my permit needs to go from ISD to Des um or uh from somewhere within cpht to somewhere else within cphd. That's where things seem to we at least so anecdotally.

I

We hear things are getting dropped, delayed um uh or other issues kind of beset the process. Can you or the appropriate team members share a little more about how you work with other within the the kind of multiple entities within cphd and the divisions there or with other divisions and areas? Maybe you see room for improvement. Would you challenge that perspective that there's problems at the point of handshake or handoff? What else should we know.

I

C

Your question sort of reflects the amount of interdivisional and interdepartmental efforts that occur in order to issue permits.

I

C

So we do have um uh sharir Amiri hiri with ISD and arlova vonum with with uh the zoning Division, and we also have our permit Arlington program manager, Debbie Albert, um but it is, it is complex and we've heard some of that feedback as well. In terms of you know, the interactions and the relationships between the different divisions and and the Departments, and maybe one department or division, is holding something up and they're waiting for that next approval to be moved forward um it. It is always a challenge.

C

The permit Arlington system was designed to help facilitate permits going through the process. I believe it has, but I will turn it over to Mr Amiri. Who would like to provide a little bit more comment on that.

M

Sure miss Crystal as a practitioner of 37 years and counting, and so some of the comments you hear is no I'm, not surprised by it. Every time you have this Mass migration from a pre pre Y2K technology to a new technology. It's a lesson learned for everybody. You know our staff has to learn a different tools, different manners to do, and our customers the same and I always recalled when I was in Montgomery. County I made the news in a matter of a week.

M

They said how great you're doing and the first day we went up the system shut down for three weeks and we didn't know how so I've seen that happen. I think it's part of the process, if you ask I, I suspect that if you ask our customers six months out down the line that you're not going to see the same type of complaints, one of the things I think I have always been proud of. Is creation the concept of permanent Arlington?

M

You don't see that often when tree functional areas come together with different priorities and coll and collaborate and work as a team, you know I welcome you to come to the you know 10th floor. When we are open, I mean we have the same Mission. We establish the same timeline for review. We were all over the map. You know. I still got three weeks. Somebody else was uh four four months or vice versa. We have agreed upon time for him.

M

I think some of the delays and frustration is just learning the new system and and I think right now that we have launched the co. The last piece of this process, I think the next effort is to need a modifying the pain. Point pay more attention to how we can you know maneuver the system to uh you know to serve as customers, but in it I don't believe there is anything broken in the process.

M

I think we made a great deal of improvement in the process that a handoff from Department to Department, I I can tell you the staff on all fronts. They are very keen about the handoff needs to be a you know, smooth so I think it's a combination, um you know of learning new system, and you know we need to be a little bit patient for it. You know until we manage going to the next mode of streamlining the process.

M

I would I would hope that six months down the road when we do a survey, the result would be um definitely different. I, don't know whether I answered the question or not.

I

It did I mean I, think that my question was: are there areas to improve that handshake and I? Think what I'm hearing for you is from you is that um the the experience the to the extent customers have had experiences below what we would expect or want for them. It's really been a of the new system. What.

M

The new system I I'm, not saying that um our processes are great and we have a very complex process that everybody needs to touch everything you know the building permit that goes out of here has my signature on it, but before I can put my signature on it, another half a dozen department needs to sign off on it. So it's a complexity of the process, also that that feeds that one and when you're going to a brand new system that everybody has to learn from beginning it sometimes exasperates. The experience.

I

A

K

um Thank you, I I'll have a separate question: I mean I'll, be interested and I'll want to follow up on the As. You move to the first floor two days a week three days a week and also just a little bit better understanding uh that hope that we reduce those times uh over the next six months. That's that'll be really of Interest, so I I, don't know that'll be in this month, but I I will be asking for a meeting uh down the road. In this. My question: I'm, I'm sort of I have two questions.

K

Two areas of questions and I want to be efficient, I'm, not sure the work plan we're covering that right now. Is that correct we're not going uh you're not going to cover that okay. So the question is Miss Patel you really aligned with with my thinking on Langston and the VHC and I am very eager to move forward on both um and I wonder, wanted to see. I think this is for Mr fusarelli.

K

It's um I know that there's both the plan and then the implementation on Langston and um my sense is the estimate is third quarter of this calendar year um and there's a little bit of work left to do to see if both plan and implementation can come to us. At the same time, I just want to express how eager I am for that to move forward and to understand that question a little bit of do.

K

We need some more work before we know whether it's plan and implementation at the same time, or we already set that both the plan and the implementation framework would come forward uh together. No.

D

Thanks, thank you for clarifying that question um and I think the last time we spoke indicated uh some of the project team meetings were upcoming to really dive deeper into that one of them just a card. Last week, um I I have greater confidence or increased confidence that we'll be able to bring forward the implementation and the plan great um that's in our and as noted in the documentation, our current Target uh would be third quarter.

K

Great well, thank you. um I feel like in the movie where they say, I strenuously hope that we can get there soon and I know that's been so so um that's it. I I will have one more question and I can yield now or do it at your pleasure, Mr chair, wrap it up. um I wanted to. Thank you, sir.

G

M

K

I wanted to inquire about the Millwood project, and um that is an opportunity for additional, affordable housing. I know that a site plan has been submitted. I wondered if you could provide an update. That is also a priority.

D

uh Thank you for that question as well um the Melwood site, as well as another site on the 2300 block of South East Street. Those currently comprise the two tier two special glove studies that are in the in the queue um I believe. Just from a chronological perspective.

D

If memory serves the eat, Street application I think was submitted the cycle before the Melwood and, as I noted earlier, we're looking to bring forward to the commission and board in May the closeout for the North Glebe, the 2000 North Glebe special Club study, um so I would anticipate that shortly thereafter, we would be beginning the next tier two um and we will have you know more detailed information in terms of which that is probably.

K

A few months from now great thank you I'm, mindful of the chairs, comment that both with respect to Financial Resources, but also work, we would have to pull something out in order to want something sooner so I'll follow up on that. One thanks. Thank you. Mr D for antiv.

A

L

Yeah, thank you. um I was told that when you did your presentation, you did not go over the child care initiative. If that's true, could you just give a few sentences on the chat? This is a priority coming up child care initiative, phase two and remind me- and maybe some others. What that involves.

D

Yeah absolutely, um and thanks for that question um So within the I'd say the past month uh we have started discussions with NC PhD with Partners in human services. We need to reach out next to Economic Development to Parks and Recreation.

D

um We are we that those conversations will inform the drafting of a scope which we will then put out uh for to try and get a consultant to help us with this work. You're.

L

A consultant again: okay, all right in.

D

The conver in the conversations today, yeah I, think what a few things have come come through some really insightful uh conversations with our partners in DHS about some of the challenges about um you know there are pools of funding available, for you know subsidized slots, but challenge is to actually get encourage and induce certain providers to accept those slots when they could accept non-subsidized um clients or customers, for example, um and so looking at challenges and opportunities with how to address that.

D

You know: are there County resources and Facilities that you know could factor into that equation?

D

um That I mean that's one example there's also been in an ongoing discussion about you, know, potential consideration of you know additional density through the zoning ordinance for provision of of space for child care, um so we're you know we have begun the conversations I think we've had more work ahead of us.

D

um One I think uh thing that we could perhaps even address I would expect we could address before consultant. Support would be taking another look at the use permits that are still required for the family day. The family, home providers between I think 10 and 12 and looking to do something similar with those, as we had done with the five to nine previously.

D

So an array of array of opportunities is just working.

L

Through that's excellent, thank you and that we're not going to plunge ahead and solve a problem that maybe isn't the one that we really need to be solving appreciate it. Thank you.

A

Sure miss Crystal.

I

I just wanted to make one comment: I um I am a little disappointed that it is in 2024 on the work plan um understand why that's necessary I just wanted to say since I won't be here, then, for the record just to elevate something that I have shared with Steph um before, which is uh I, really hope that we can keep the focus in that study on affordable child care and, if we're talking about incentives as far as I'm concerned, actual just provision of space for child care.

I

Looking to child care operators as tenants, that's table Stakes right, I, don't think we should be incenting or looking for ways to incent that at all I think the the really key thing is exactly is Mr fusarelli talked about. um It is hard for providers to take our subsidy program. The state subsidy program, I hope that I know there is more.

I

We can do and we'll probably talk about DHS to overcome some of those barriers, but when it comes to using our zoning tools giving bonus density that type of thing, in the same way that you know we don't necessarily incent the creation of market rate housing. Even though it is absolutely necessary and good, we incent the creation of affordable housing and I really think that Paradigm for child care is important too, as the study goes forward. Thank you, Mr chair.

A

Of course, all right with that I think uh just like to extend our thanks to chairs Davis, malikoff and Patel. Thank you for joining us sharing those perspectives very important for our conversation. We could, of course, spend a lot more time here, but hopefully colleagues, you accept my gentle, facilitating because we not only have our housing program but then are also the entire Department of Human Services upcoming during this session. So thank you all and have a great day and devanci get some rest.

L

Christian the hammer Dorsey, oh.

I

Carrie's birthday dinner here I am.

C

A

A

We might be able to do sales yeah.

B

So we've had a Changing of the Guard here, we're gonna I'm gonna turn it over to I'm waiting for the the look from Anne that she's, ready and Venezia is here uh and along with Anita Friedman. To start our conversation on housing so over to you, Miss Venezia,.

A

Always love the collaborative nature of this joint presentation. It's it's awesome.

O

Okay, I think I'm good how's. Everyone doing today we're.

A

Well, how are you great.

O

I know we have a lot of information to cover and we still have a whole nother Department to go after this. So I'll try to go through this as quickly as I can um so good afternoon. I'm Anne, Venezia I'm, the County's housing director and in this budget segment focused on housing, Anita and I are going to share how DHS and cphd work together to support greater housing, affordability and stability in Arlington.

O

And we're going to talk about the lovely Spring weather for just a moment, while.

P

We await our slides to gifted.

O

um They're really good slides, so I I.

A

Think yeah we got them you're ready to go.

O

We're good excellent.

L

Okay behind you, they're teasing. You.

O

Q

O

C

This always happens with this presentation.

O

It's because it's me and Anita that this happens okay, um so this is an overview slide that you saw during the county. Manager's presentation on his proposed budget, Anita and I will be covering these proposed budget amounts in Greater detail now next slide.

O

Affordable housing remains one of Arlington's biggest challenges and Arlington's investment in and care of, these communities reflects the County's commitment to racial Equity, as well as where additional work is still needed. With many people in our community facing urgent threats to Housing. Solutions must balance support for individual needs, with efforts to increase Supply and ensure the supply is well maintained.

O

Cphd and DHS work together to meet this demand for housing, affordability by creating programs that complement each other to support. Arlington's, low-income households, for instance, committed affordable units or calves secured by cphd help provide a supply of units for dhs's housing grants and permanent Supportive Housing clients.

O

Meanwhile, DHS subsidies and case management help as well as eviction prevention resources, fill the affordability gap for calf households and improve housing and stability. Collaboration is also seen in ongoing efforts like the bar, Croft or DHS, and housing staff work together to focus on individual living situations by identifying resident needs for rental assistance and other support.

O

It's important to emphasize how this collaboration between cphd and DHS is part of an overarching strategy for affordable housing in Arlington. Next slide.

O

I have the privilege of kicking off today's joint presentation on housing by discussing the County's, affordable housing, investment fund or aheif. The county is a mission-driven lender, and the primary goal of the Ahab program is to create and preserve. Calfs AF is the County's main vehicle to both preserve and create long-term, affordable housing by making low interest loans to Developers with Arlington's ahif program.

O

The county historically has decided to use these funds as cash flow loans, meaning the county is repaid, as property funds are available and since ahab's Inception in 1988 and not including Barcroft, the County Board has allocated 457 million dollars for over 120 loans to date and with this loan model. Since the Inception of the program we've received approximately 150 million dollars in loan repayments and 43 percent of the County's loans have paid in full for fiscal year.

O

24 the county manager proposes 9.7 million dollars in ongoing funds for ahef, and while one-time funds aren't proposed for fiscal year 24, this proposal retains level ongoing funds for this important program next slide with the AF model. We've had a number of accomplishments.

O

These last few years, for example, the County's CAF portfolio grew 28 between fiscal year 20 and fiscal year, 22 from 86, 000 or I'm, sorry from 8 650 units to over 11 000 units and during the same time period the number of calves affordable to households earning less than 30 percent of the area.

O

Median income doubled additionally to improve oversight of the County's Investment cphd Housing, increased housing, quality standards, cap inspections from five percent of the portfolio to over 20 percent, even with the growth I mentioned a moment ago between fiscal year, 21 and fiscal year, 23 and all of these accomplishments occurred during a national pandemic next slide, as we anticipate our full funding picture for fiscal year 24. It's important to consider the County's commitment to the Barcroft community.

O

As you may recall, the county assisted gyre Lynch by using 150 million dollar line of credit to support the purchase of Barcroft Apartments, which consists of 1 334. One. Two and three bedroom units staff continues to work with the gyre Lynch team to review the master, financing and development plan they submitted in October, and while higher interest rates and increased construction costs make the financial models more challenging.

O

At Barcroft, we still anticipate being able to deliver on all of the commitments the county made in 2021, namely to retain all 1334, affordable units with no displacement of Legacy residents, regardless of income household size or immigration status.

O

Staff will provide briefings to board members later this month and have a more detailed update to share with the bar Croft stakeholders in April in fiscal year, 24 Barcroft Debt Service on the 150 million dollar county line of credit is projected to be 7.8 million dollars as part of the County's acquisition loan agreement.

O

Jire Lynch must pay one percent interest on the outstanding balance of the county loan, and so, as a result, we anticipate a 1.5 million dollar interest payment on the outstanding County loan balance in fiscal year, 24, which can be applied to this Debt Service obligation impending future interest rates, we anticipate Debt Service amounts may increase in out years next slide.

O

Another important piece of our fiscal year 24 funding picture is the Columbia Pike Tiff, the Columbia Pike Tiff was established in 2013 to help Finance, affordable housing initiatives in support of the Columbia Pike neighborhoods area plan.

O

Since its establishment and it's and as of the start of this fiscal year, the Columbia Pike Tiff has generated 4.1 million dollars in Revenue.

O

Further, this tip has assisted three housing projects to date, with approximately 1.5 million dollars in in financing for fiscal year 24 the county manager recommends the outstanding Tif balance, plus Revenue collected in fiscal year, 24 be used to support the Barcroft debt, and these amounts total approximately 5.3 million dollars next slide.

O

This slide summarizes all of these funny pieces for the board's consideration. The county board's annual appropriation to ahef is one piece of the County's multi-family development loan fund. This slide shows how developer contributions, loan, repayments, federal funds and the Columbia Pike Tiff outlined on the previous slide, also support the County's Loan Fund for multi-family development.

O

While all of these sources for fiscal year 20 are with all of these sources for fiscal year 24. The projected County budget is 22.3 million dollars.

O

This slide also demonstrates the projected Debt Service needs for both Barcroft and Buckingham Villages, three Debt Service payments, which are 7.8 million and 2 million, respectively, for a total of 9.8 million dollars.

O

After considering these Debt Service obligations, the anticipated net budget for AF is approximately 12.5 million in fiscal year. 24.

O

Next slide to wrap up I wanted to highlight our housing quality standards or hqs inspections, work, which is a key component of the County's long-term strategies for improved oversight and tenant support at aging calf properties, which was released in April 2022 for the benefit of the board and the community I wanted to share that our annual progress report for these strategies and it is anticipated in May 2023 and will be shared in the affordable housing master plan annual report.

O

In future years, staff continues to monitor the health of cath properties through physical and financial inspections and through the fiscal year 23 budget process. Approximately two hundred thousand dollars was allocated to increase property inspections capacity. As a result, cphd housing hired a third party inspections firm to inspect approximately 2 000 additional units into in 2023.

O

cphd housing will work with the county manager to continue support for this work in fiscal year 24..

O

So, with that I'm going to turn it over to Anita to discuss some of dhs's housing programs and Associated budgets for fiscal year, 24.

P

Thank you and good afternoon members of the County Board manager, Schwartz colleagues, um the DHS side of the house is focused on providing the rental subsidy supports and supportive services to ensure that our lowest income members of the community are able to maintain affordable and decent housing in fya 2024, and some of you have had a preview of this eviction prevention work already. We are requesting a one-time amount of three million dollars for for eviction, prevention, funds and six hundred thousand dollars in ongoing.

P

um So far to date, just you know. Eviction prevention remains high. In this fiscal year alone of 2023, uh 5.4 million dollars has been dispersed to over 1200 households. uh That's a as of February. We also know that these households are predominantly by pock. 44 are Latino, households and 26 percent are black and they uh primarily reside in 22204..

P

The reason that we have this High expenditure this year is that the rain, the rent relief portal of the State uh cease to function or have any funding as of May of this last year. Nonetheless, there had been determinations by the state of approvals for rental relief.

P

um They sent out notices to households that that funding was no longer available. Some of our neighboring jurisdictions decided not to assist those households. Arlington uh went ahead and assisted those households that still had rental arrearages and had been promised by the state to remain in their housing.

P

um So we have uh been spending at a higher than uh expected rate last summer. If you remember, we had some conversations about how to sort of bring the eviction prevention uh program back towards pre-pandemic levels. Pre-Pandemic levels we had on a busy year, we'd have a million dollars of of eviction prevention going out the door.

P

um So we took a phased approach and um last October we lowered the area median income threshold from 80 to 50 Ami. We sent out notifications to all households who had received eviction prevention before um then, as of January 1st. Just now recently, we put in a cap of seven thousand dollars per household for the for the calendar year in terms of the maximum amount of eviction prevention funding. They can get we're also requiring that there be a notarized lease, a five-day notice to pay or quit proof of financial hardship.

P

A mandatory referral to the Arlington employment center and that the maximum rent that um amounts that we can uh consider when people are approaching is are 150 percent of the fair market rents.

P

um Nonetheless, we still have evictions uh happening this uh Thursday every Thursday. There's an eviction docket our how our staff uh from the community Assistance Bureau attend along with legal services, Northern Virginia. We work very closely um with the landlords and the courts to ensure that if there is a chance that this uh that a family can have their marriages taken, care of and their uh eviction be stayed or eliminated, we can we do that.

P

We are working with landlords to better understand, so they can better understand our policies and our limits, and um we will continue to work with app iahc and all the other landlords to ensure as much as possible that the households are not adversely affected.

P

Next slide housing grants. Well, that's our favorite program. Housing grants is one of the key tools of Arlington's housing. Affordability. As you know, the committed, affordable units that are produced through ahif are largely targeted to 50 to 60 percent of Ami. Although there's more, there are now uh getting lower, but housing grants brings the affordability down to around 30 percent of area median income by providing a subsidy this coming fiscal year 2024 we are requesting a 2.4 million dollars in one-time funds uh for a total of 14.4 million.

P

Actually, this is where we expected to we. We are in 24, where we expect it to be in 23..

P

We have not expended at the same rate, um and the reason is that, when the covid criteria that we had that had loosened the work requirements for Working Families when that expired, if you remember that expired uh this past year, we had a little bit of a dip, and then people went off the housing grants and we had re-applications once people established their work requirements.

P

So you can see that in the orange line where the dip is so we're going to be at 1551, we project households to be served in fy24 for the 14-4 million dollars. You also have in your well should have been distributed to you. Our annual updates of the housing grants, history, which is an orange handout and also a green handout that.

A

Has a we received, no handouts.

P

No Corey can probably remember that.

P

A

Service manager.

A

Could have been handouts.

P

I'm not sure how they got to, but in any case these are our I will have them sent to these are our and our every year we present our history of housing grants over the last five years and the snapshot of who is currently in housing grants.

P

um So that's coming to you in the theater near you, I hope.

A

Electronically, so we're good.

L

I think so: okay housing grants program.

P

Yes program, history, Orange, has orange line and housing grants program snapshot, so it basically shows you that of the um 15 of the current number of households enrolled, we have about 32 percent, who are 65 and older. 42 are folks with disabilities and 26 are working. Families and the average annual income of folks are very, very low. uh Working Families have an annual average income of thirty three thousand dollars: 781 people with disabilities and aging, and the 65 and older around sixteen thousand dollars a year. So we're dealing with extremely vulnerable populations.

P

um We can go back to the housing Grant Slide. The growth for next year is expected to be, or from this year to next is 4.9 percent.

P

Okay, I need the slide that has the Mars.

P

P

So the maximum allowable rents um of people who have housing grants uh keep up with the 60 percent HUD Ami rate. That was something that the manager adopted in FY 2020. Prior to that, if you remember there was 10 years where it never had increased and people could no longer find apartments that were affordable. This has allowed people to find uh and access more affordable, a broader range of affordable units, the housing, Grant study, I'm sure you're, all anxious to hear about that.

P

So last year you said Mr manager. We need a housing, Grant study and, and the manager said to me Anita get on it, so um we started by Contracting a consulting company reingold and they did an extensive Outreach to the community focus groups with applicants. Current participants, past participants, internal stakeholders, external stakeholders.

P

We did telephone surveys, we did interviews with key folks in the County government and we also got a developmental, uh a person on the developmental assignment to be the study coordinator, who came from Des, uh where she is doing an extensive, Regional and National literature review. We are reviewing the history.

P

We are reviewing the rental household, uh his history and we are going to have very soon for you, an update with recommendations um and we will have a community Forum with after we have those recommendations and we will deliver to you by the summer of final report and there's, of course, you know preliminarily. There are things in there that are changes to eligibility criteria, certain special populations that people would like to assist. You know previously incarcerated or Foster youth aging out of foster care.

P

There are recommendations about how we manage the program making how to make it more user-friendly, more customer service oriented more, um you know, seamless in terms of the application process. All that will be incorporated into the report that we give to you this summer and then you will decide. You know what you want to do: okay, housing, Choice vouchers, now, how's interest. Everyone knows is a fully federally funded program, a hundred percent Federal from HUD- and um this shows basically that you know the amounts per average.

P

Subsidy are going up they're much higher than you know: housing grants, housing grants is in the 700s. This is in 1200. Now um the households that are enrolled are 1528 uh or projected to be in fy24. We actually have, though, over 1700 vouchers. The reason we can't lease them all up is because our budget doesn't allow us to lease it all up, because with 1528 vouchers we will already have expended our the cost per voucher is so expensive that you can't go over your budget.

P

The other exciting thing about housing, Choice vouchers this year, is that we are porting in 141 additional vouchers for seniors living in Culpepper Gardens. If you remember, when Culpepper Gardens was redeveloped and they were additional vouchers put put into their 141, we didn't have the capacity to manage that program, so Fairfax County managed it for us for the last I think, five or six years, that's going to bring up our grand total of vouchers to 1848.

P

next slide permanent Supportive Housing. There's no additional funding requests for fy24. We do have currently um where we will have in the base budget, 3.6 million dollars. We also are have successfully garnered federal and state uh funding, coming from the Department of Behavioral, Health and developmental services and and other monies from HUD. So we're expected to serve 379 households. This is an evidence-based model. High number of previously homeless, year-over-year 93 percent of participants retain their housing average housing tenure is 5.6 years. We do have a pretty Lane.

P

You know High wait list now 65 clients on our wait list taking longer to find units. You know there's High Acuity of within the population itself. You know in terms of behavioral health issues, but also there's the scarcity of the units that are available. uh Although you know we work with cphd to to enter into agreements to procure those next slide.

P

Two more items, one is housing is hqs inspections. Hqs is the housing quality standards. That's been adopted by Hud. Those are the that's the level of inspections that cphd did. For last year of 2000 units we are requesting a thousand dollars, a thousand hundred thousand dollars for local funds, for permanent Supportive Housing inspections and from housing. Choice voucher, we're going to use a hundred thousand dollars of our administrative funds to inspect those units. We have no set inspection people in permanent sport of housing, case managers who are supposed to focus on like tenancy issues.

P

You know helping the household maintain and resolve their instability issues. They are the ones who currently do the inspections. So uh we believe that it would be much better if we had a contracted professional vendor who can conduct hqs at move-in and annual recertification to ensure that there's quality standards that are enforced, because these units often have a lot of issues and upon inspection and we're also going to work with landlords to ensure that all the agreements reflect the kinds of standards that we believe should be met through hqs next and final slide.

P

Landlord engagement, analysts so um I think we were discussing landlords before and um without the landlords we can't have without their cooperation. We can't place people into the unit. So it's really behooves us to have a person who can focus on engaging with the landlord community and I'm, not just talking about app and ahc I'm. Talking about the multiple, the multitude of um you know: private landlords that are out there so that they can understand the different Housing Programs we have the requirements. The payment standards um have good communication.

P

We can provide them with technical assistance when they need it or supports for their client for the tenants. So we have a request in here for one management analyst uh to provide landlord engagement, training and support. It would be funded 60 by housing, Choice, voucher and 40 local funds, and that concludes my presentation.

A

Thank you, Ms Friedman, Ms Venezia. We appreciate it. uh Let's see, of course, we'll have our Housing Commission. Hopefully present is Mr Macbeth here today. Please make your way up to the front.

A

And also Mr wimbush I, see from our tenant landlord Commission come on up you and Kellen.

J

Can trade after effects do.

A

Your thing all right take it away: Mr McBeth. uh Thank you.

R

There we go okay, thank you, staff for preparation of this budget and the presentation and thank you, County board members for consideration of uh what I'm about to say um so I.

R

Let me start by saying that the Housing Commission meets tonight, so we've not had a chance to officially discuss and adopt um feedback for the County Board related to the budget, but we have circulated um the uh the comments that I'm about to share tonight. So at least the Commissioners are aware and have no objection to them.

R

So I wanted to start by saying that we appreciate the stable funding for the housing grant program as well as primitive, Supportive, Housing I think we're very much looking forward to the recommendations coming out of the housing Grant work group, as was discussed and as you're very well aware that many more residents are housing costs burdened in our community than our current eligibility criteria for housing. Grants allow to be helped so we're very much hoping that those recommendations will help us on a path to serve more people with housing grants.

R

We do have a number of concerns about the budget. I think the first is ahif. So the proposed ahif levels of 9.7 million are half approximately half of what was approved last year by the board, which was 18.7 million, and while the 9.7 million is adequate to uh find the ballooning, Barcroft Debt Service, as well as Debt Service for Buckingham, and um to also pay for things like crystal house, it doesn't include a lot of upcoming needs that we know that we will have in future years.

R

So at the current levels, it basically will not fund any future calf development.

R

And we view that as a problem, if we're going to try and meet our affordable housing goals in our community, that we've already agreed to as part of the affordable housing master plan, and we know, for instance, that the Serrano is going to be coming up soon for either re-abilitation or Redevelopment.

R

That's probably going to result in an ahif request that at current funding levels of 9.7 million, we will not be able to pay for and I think that's an area, especially as we look at some of the older properties as well as some other developments for calfs.

R

That we know are coming down the pipeline that we want to make sure we have enough funding to support those in future years and then continuing to best in ahif at the levels that we saw last year is really critical to ensuring that, beyond the existing debt service requirements and the projects that we've already committed to as a community that we're preparing for the other projects that we know are coming and are absolutely necessary and critical to meeting our affordable housing Supply goals, especially at a time that I think was previously discussed as well.

R

Construction costs and interest rates are increasing, it's becoming more expensive for affordable housing development and our Community Partners, who are doing that development are going to need more resources and support to be able to produce more calf units for our community.

R

Additionally, uh we are concerned about the staff capacity when it comes to implementation of the long-term strategies for improved oversight and tenant support at agencap properties and the commitments that were made last spring, as well as being able to implement the recommendations from The Joint uh tenant, landlord, commission and Housing Commission subcommittee on the status of Aging properties. Aka.

R

The Serrano report that was issued in October of 2022 as part of that I think we were happy to see last year a commitment to step up our calf inspections from uh just a fraction of the total volume of calves every year to doing this year. 2000 CAF inspections.

R

Unfortunately, that money is not proposed to continue, and we think that considering the issues that we still hear from residents about aging CAF properties and maintenance concerns, and even what we've heard today about you know the the state of primitive Supportive Housing units in the county, that we need to be vigilant with our housing quality inspections at our calf properties and can continuing to invest in outside resources, because the county doesn't have enough internal staff to to adequately do those inspections on a yearly basis.

R

Is very critical um and we also um I think this was a theme again with the the planning uh division. Discussion as well are looking for more resources for the cphd housing division, whether that includes the deputy director position um or other Physicians to ensure that we have enough staff to follow through on commitments that have already been made, as well as new opportunities to better serve our especially low-income populations in this community and their housing needs.

R

As part of that, we would really like the board and the manager to consider additional funding for establishing regular Equity analysis for all housing and planning projects, as was mentioned, I think staff did a really great job on the missing middle housing study of doing a comprehensive Equity analysis that doesn't happen for any of our other planning or housing projects.

R

But it is a critical piece of Arlington's commitment to equity to actually do an analysis and see how our programs impact different races that this City's different populations throughout our community and make sure that that's incorporated into the proposals that we're we're bringing forward as a as a community.

R

um We would also um you know, urge the County Board um and the manager to look to the commitments that are likely to be made this summer for the regional, fair housing plan um and that staff has worked very hard with the Metropolitan Washington Council of governments, as well as members of the County Board to put in place and and think about the costs that will be associated with implementing these very much needed fair housing strategies and goals and as part of that I know, this is kind of outside the realm of cphd and DHS.

R

But within the office of Human Rights budget. There's fifty thousand dollars allocated for FY 2024 for a fair housing study which I read as fair housing testing and that hasn't been done since 2019.

R

It's one of the counties of these draft goals to expand that to include not just race and national origin, but also disability and I know many Advocates have urged the county to do testing even Beyond those areas, because housing discrimination is very real and is a major problem, as evidenced by uh the the really comprehensive um analysis done in the regional, fair housing plan.

R

So, looking at expanding the uh the categories um that are part of the fair housing testing that will be done in 2024, we think is also important for the the board and the manager to consider um and then again. Lastly, just ensuring that we're providing adequate funding for the implementation of the counties, uh developing strategic plan to functionally end homelessness in the next four years.

R

I think DHS is doing great work in that regard and I know it's not final yet, but looking at anything that can be done in FY 2024 to help put us on the right path in solid footing to achieve that goal um as it's being outlined or potentially sooner um because, as we all know, functionality and homelessness is an amazing thing for our community to potentially achieve, and anything we can do to invest in that I think is definitely worthwhile.

R

A

You thank you. Thank you, Mr Macbeth, and, if you wouldn't mind doing a little chair change, indeed,.

A

Chair one wish the floor is yours,.

S

Good afternoon uh my name is Chris wimbush and I'm, the vice chair of the tenant landlord commission. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the county managers. Fy 2024 proposed budget and I'd like to focus my comments uh in two areas.

S

As the county managers proposed budget notes in fiscal year 2023 the board made a one-time funding allocation of 150 000 to enable increased physical inspections leading to 400 units being brought into compliance. This effort by the housing division should be commended, but it does highlight continued challenges with our calf properties.

S

With this in mind, I asked the board to consider additional one-time funding to support, expand, expanded inspections Beyond those already planned to ensure aging properties receive adequate attention. Giving continued resident concerns.

S

Second, we know that the covid-19 pandemic and National Economic headwinds have placed an extraordinary strain on Arlington families. We commend the county manager's commitment of three million dollars in one-time funding for eviction prevention, but as economic headwinds continue, the County Board should consider additional one-time funds to ensure we can support those with the greatest need in our community.

S

Finally, I just want to take a minute to thank and recognize the members of the housing division and DHS for their tireless work on behalf of residents and businesses in the county. It is sometimes easy to forget, In, the Heat of public policy debates and a global Public Health Emergency in the daily vagaries of life that County civil servants are like us trying to make this place. We live and work in better, and so for that I say. Thank you.

A

Thank you, let's not Sully those words with our questions.

A

So you know, colleagues, just uh with the check of time, mindful that we have DHS as well as I, believe for advisory commission presentations yet to go. If you could sort of prioritize your budget Focus questions first and we'll see how we do before we maybe get into policy related discussions.

A

Thank you all right, Miss Crystal I'm.

I

Going to try to be very brief, although I just is a flag I'd be interested in following with the housing intent landlord. Both of you mentioned a desire for more resources for inspections or worry about money for inspections going away, and so, if we have the opportunity um uh I believe we just got. The presentation suggested that housing quality standards was receipt, was adding 100K in housing. Choice voucher at 100K, in local funding, for inspections is that different than what our two commissions talked about.

P

Our request for a hundred thousand is for permanent Supportive Housing units and for housing, Choice voucher units.

I

The question is for housing grants units, that's the that's. The advocacy is for Cafe.

B

Can I speak to that for a second, because I think this? This one is on me yeah, it's hard to believe that I made a mistake, but um when we're putting together the budget at the very end, it's not. This has to do with inspections and from the housing division, not DHS DHS. We are adding resources. There I've made it clear to Ms Venezia that um I will make. You know we left four and a half million dollars unallocated on the table.

B

I I would say that when you ask me what my priorities are: that's the first take I sort of we sort of missed that in the in the cleanup at the very end, and that, even if we need more than that, my commitment made last year when we talked about this was that we would do whatever inspection regime that we needed to do to make sure that you know we're addressing that. First slide talked about how we barely did any inspections four or five years ago.

B

We're committed to doing as many as we have to do.

I

Okay, excellent excellent also would just appreciate if we can figure out some way to to clarify what we're talking about, because our permanent Supportive Housing units and the units in which people are using housing. Cruise vouchers are all caps. They are okay, so I think we if we could just come up with some nomenclature, that will help me yeah.

P

So you're talking about non-caps, Beyond housing choices. There you go.

I

um I think I'm gonna follow up in writing just with some questions about that. The using the Tiff balance in Columbia Pike I want to get a sense of um what the opportunity cost of that might be. It sounds like we've only ever used the Tiff balances on affordable housing projects, but are there other things this kind of crosses, probably Columbia, um cphd housing, maybe a little Des sort of what else would we be thinking about using the Tiff on, but I can follow up with that? Thank you all.

A

Right, thank you, uh Mr deferanti and then we'll go to this side. Thank.

K

You Mr chair, um uh thank you for the uh Kellen for uh your Mr Macbeth, for your thorough points and detailed and I may end up looking watching the video on that I'm glad you mentioned homelessness, that's a huge project, that's underway on ahif, I kind of Miss, Venezia, I, think 12 and a half million is the figure I think you mentioned. If you add that you know the ahif related. Is that correct.

O

So um what we're estimating is that the net budget, if you take all sources in the multi-family Loan Fund, which includes um for fiscal year, 24 we're, including the Columbia Pike tip balances, in that our federal monies, our loan repayments, developer contributions. All of the usual sources that we mentioned in addition to the appropriation that you all may consider.

O

When you do your budget adoption in April, and so what we did is we took all of those sources we netted out with The Debt Service estimates are both for Barcroft and also for BB3, and then the net budget remaining we're estimating to be about 12 and a half million great.

K

That's helpful I do, of course the Serrano is always on my mind, but I also mentioned Melwood earlier. There's a pipeline question with respect to ahif and so I know. We've done one time in the past. I don't know whether we'll have a ton of one time but I'll follow up on that and then the last place that I'll follow up. I'm I really appreciate the one-time request. We seem to have more one-time funding thing AKA, deputy director, which is on my mind for next budget year. Not this one but uh but I I.

K

Think there's in page 722 and 723 I think our cap inspection success even with the 400 is still in the 40 range and 40 percent in my algebra 8th grade class was great for me, but you know on some tests, but you know, but for and and 40. So honestly, 40 may not be bad. I, don't know enough about the inspection rates, but I wondered if you could speak a little bit about that at all. Absolutely.

O

So um as a commitment that we made through the cap strategies um that again were released in April of last year, um our goal is to inspect 20 of the units that are in our cash portfolio. Now, when we use those numbers uh to miss Crystal's Point earlier, that would be in addition to any inspections that are done through Anita's programs and her staff.

O

So all in you know we are probably getting closer to I, don't know 25 30, perhaps all in um but again what we're aiming to do is for when we isolate the um the portfolio, that is calf alone does not have a DHS client in it. That would be subject to an Anita's inspections, we're aiming for 20 percent.

K

O

Which we will achieve this year, great.

K

That's great on the number inspected and I'll follow up on the number of success. I'm kind of interested in you know the one-time request and and if we got 400 done this year, if I think I may have misread, but 41.8 percent is the amount successful. So in the interest of time, unless you Pine to opine on it, I'll follow up on that one just to understand how many of our inspections are successful and what we need to you're talking.

A

About, after, like the number of units that pass initial inspection, yeah.

K

Got it yeah so I think to the chairs point, and if it's okay with you with all that you do I'll just follow up on that in writing. If that's, okay, thanks! Thank you. Please.

A

No one use the Intel about Mr deferanti's algebra scores is.

T

A

Research, you know that might have been TMI is the key kids.

L

um So I'm gonna follow up with Mr D Fran. His question is a little bit more and by the way, I appreciate the briefing earlier today and I know we're gonna, that's Sam! Thank you for everything. You're doing I, actually I appreciate Mr, Wayne Bush's. Thank you, because um everybody's been working really hard um so to drive down. So if I'm, just public looking at this and I see 61 past inspection and initial move-in, so that means people moved in anyway, even though they didn't pass right.

L

So do if you want to talk about, I mean what does it mean to not pass because the numbers here look like? Oh, my Heavens, you know: are we allowing people to live in and at terrible conditions? I assume? That's not the case.

P

Q

That's not the.

P

Case many, a house in.

L

An apartment where it needed work before I, you know after I moved in so could you just explain that in case sure.

P

Sure what that means, basically, you know units are inspected when someone moves in or when they're, when their recertification is taking place, um we don't let people move into units that are not up to standards. Just means they have to be re-inspected. The landlord has to make modifications to improve the specific deficiencies.

A

If I could just to relay that, that could be anything from a structural repair, it could also mean in inoperable uh his smoke detector.

L

Which needs a battery that has to get yes right.

P

Right, thank you yeah right. So the issue is: is that for permanent Supportive Housing we don't have dedicated inspectors and housing Choice voucher for the 1500 households. We have. We have two inspectors for housing choice for a permanent Supportive Housing. We have no inspectors our our. We train our case managers who are sort of social worker types to actually do the inspection. That leads a lot to be desired right. It leads because they are being inspect trained in in an area that is not their area of expertise, but they'd.

L

Pick up something really egregious right.

P

Yeah, and so when things are, do not pass inspection, it just delays the ability of a club of a client to be able to move into the unit, and um you.

L

Know: okay, yeah! Thank you. I I was thinking just because other people watch this. They don't see it. You know you might have something like 100 meet standards. Whatever you.

P

See what I'm saying it.

L

Just looks it it this.

P

Is just showing you I, don't think is true and I just wanted to right. This is not showing what the outcome is after the re-inspection yeah.

L

And the the problems that they find are not huge major things effect huge major things. We don't let them move in right. That's what I wanted to do.

A

Yeah, it's a vice chair, garvey's point, which is a good point. It might be good at some point to just share with us, so we can then share with the community. What are the National statistics on passing HUD inspections initially because I, it's not very high, um you know. So it's not like we're standing.

P

A

Particular outlier.

P

A

Thank you, Mr Karen Thomas. Thank.

H

You Mr chair and actually to your last Point, uh we've seen just across the river. What happened a couple of months ago when we found out on what they found out. You know the real, the real estate of uh in the DC housing authority and the problems that were associated with that, so inspections are really really critical. uh Having worked myself for a short while on something very similar, we had a kind of a plan on how to inspect who to prioritize, so it went by the age of the building.

H

You know the uh the last renovation, the last replacement of appliances Etc. So there was a a list of you know flags that were prioritizing and make a lot more out of this 20, which is more than 2 000 units. Actually so, uh and, and so I I would I would ask you if you, if you have some stats on that to to show us a little bit the uh the the modus operandi there would, it would be very helpful to have it will help helpful to have this?

H

uh Definitely the third point, the 53 that's likely to fail in requiring multiple inspections. So this this puts a additional strain to our system right.

P

I think yes, I, think the intent of this data was to show you the strain of the the workload on the existing case managers.

H

As a second I want to associate myself on the discussion about the uh opportunity, costs on the use of Tiff to uh you know pay for the Reliant share of that service on Barcroft uh this year, because this is not going to repeat this, this Source won't be there I mean I, wouldn't I, wouldn't you know, put it in the same basket like this. This is still a an extra we.

H

We dedicated that money when, when we instituted the Tiff for something like uh what happened in Barcroft, we wanted to have this 12 funds actually funded with that which was an intentional. So it's not a a appropriation out of scope. I understand that that still hasn't it still is a problem for me and I want to know what we, what the, what the trade-offs could be. Third- and most importantly, uh for me, right now, uh we are seeing Ami has been increasing.

H

That means that several households have been uh depressed into lower Ami, brackets and I, and you know discussing that with the residents and Barcroft, especially, but also in other places, I've seen that this puts an additional uh strain to how we have to plan for our active money. So do you anticipate that we have enough leverage or enough financial ability to deal with the additional pressure? So we have more thirty percent forty percent. Fifty percent of my households, uh apparently than we anticipated, which you know our Target- is always 60 Ami.

H

But it seems that we have more underneath under that and we don't want to displace anybody right.

O

Foreign I'm happy to respond to a few of those questions so regarding the Columbia Pike Tiff, which I actually also I'll back up for a moment, because I think you asked about our inspections and how we prioritize, um which properties we may be um team up for inspection, our inspections team, our compliance staff within the county. They do an excellent job.

O

They have a whole spreadsheet triaging, um based on just the factors that you mentioned, not only the age of the property, but the the timing of the most recent renovation so which properties may you know, have the greatest needs and whether it be Capital needs maintenance needs that sort of thing, and so they really do prioritize those properties, When selecting which may be teed up for the the 20 and so, for instance, a project that was newly built a year ago likely won't be in that 20 this year.

O

You know we're going to be looking at properties that had their last renovation. You know several several years earlier so so there is a prioritization that happens and I think it really does enable us to um to see the properties that maybe do have the greatest needs and work with those owners not only on the immediate needs, but really to talk through what are the longer term Capital plans for the property.

O

So it opens the conversation, so um so I think that it really presents a good opportunity for us to um to push into those properties and again see what the needs are. You also had asked about the Columbia Pike Tiff and what opportunity costs there may be in using the existing balances, as well as any new Revenue towards the bar Croft Debt, Service I, will say: um staff back in the fall started.

O

Having those conversations about potentially using those balances for Barcroft Barcroft is exactly the type of project that really was envisioned for using this source of funds, and so we thought that it actually is is a really good again opportunity to apply this funding source to the very project that it was envisioned to help support. And so we, you know when the county manager made, that that proposal to use those balances for the Barcroft debt in fiscal year 24..

O

um We, we think that's very consistent with what staff was envisioning and, as you mentioned, for the existing balances once those are used, they they won't replenish necessarily but through new Revenue. But we do anticipate that that ongoing ability for the new Revenue, um which will be somewhere between 1.4 and 1.7 million over the next few years, that that could continue to be a source for this debt service.

O

And your last question, which was a little more complicated I, may lean on Anita as well for the last one. But in terms of how are we continuing to serve households that um that are at lower Ami levels? So they have greater affordability needs it's a very challenging problem.

O

I will lean on some of the messaging that we share during the presentation, which is that it really is a combination of trying to bring in on the capital side units that are affordable as deeply as we can afford to make them and I know that some of what we're considering when we're looking at the long-term plan at the Barcroft, for instance, how can we, and also for crystal house I'll offer you know?

O

How can we try to go as deep as we can on the capital side to take a little pressure off of Anita and her budgets? um The programs that Anita's staff provide, though do help fill some of those gaps, um and so I think we're just going to have to continue that conversation and Anita I. Don't know if there's anything you want to add to that. But it is a challenge.

P

Well, I think that as long as I've been doing these budget presentations, that's always been the question: how do we deepen affordability- and you know, do we invest a dollar in ahif or a dollar in? uh You know that was the old question from I, think Jay, facade or right um or in housing grants and really we need both, because it's not possible to buy down I think the affordability as deeply as 30 percent for most of the time in these in the units, and so we have to supplement it through the grants.

A

Close this out, it closes out on this conversation. I'll make a slight editorial point: I think that's what one of the hopes and promises for Barcroft is we develop that partnership is to see if we can do a better job at creating on the capital side, some of those deeper levels of subsidy, so it reduces the pressure on other programs like housing grants not so that we can spend less money on them, but we can ensure that we are meeting the greater needs of the community.

A

So thank you all for that I'm, unfortunately going to cut this short, even though I know that as a policing interest, we could go on for a long time and prepare for the Department of Human Services conversation.

B

So Mr chair, while Anita, is getting ready. I wanted to take the opportunity just to make a few remarks. I, don't do it often during budget work sessions, I hope, you're, listening, you're going to hear from Anita whether it's eviction prevention, substance use, Mental, Health, Child, Care, housing grants, Public, Health, Child, Protective, Services, developmental Disability Services, the day-to-day core work of the Department of Human Services has grown and become more complex, and these are the core services to our community and I.

B

I will say that every turn these Services respond directly to the question of who benefits whose burden and how do we know, and so my budget reflects those priorities you're going to hear from Anita we're actually making additions to her budget. It is a statement of my priority and I think her priority. We've talked a lot about budget reductions.

B

There aren't there's I, think there's one in your department, but that has to do with you know not needing funds for services that are no longer being asked for, and the other thing is I wanted to complement the Department of Human Services for being able to quickly respond to what we've seen in the last six weeks, addressing what's going on in our community with youth, mental health and I'm, going to steal your thunder Anita The Crisis, Intervention Center is going to open this month.

B

Yay and um you know I'll just say this for Anita and her team. They do all this while they're trying to recruit social workers and deal with clients and uh she perseveres.

P

Because of Mark, oh.

P

um And I love Arlington, but um thank you uh once again for allowing us to present to you our DHS budget I'm joined today by my colleague, Deborah Warren. You all know her she's, the deputy director of the Department of Human Services. We only have one deputy director and she occupies the position of the csb executive director now how she does. That is a miracle.

P

We are also joined, By Glenda Pittman, who is a finance and information systems, division director and our much revered finance and management. Bureau director Corey Travis um on the phone. We have maimunaba ducking field Aging and Disability Services Division, director Carol layer, our new Behavioral Health division, director Tabitha Kelly, is on vacation she's. Our child and Family Services Division director so is brookham in Paris, on vacation economic independence and in the back are esteemed Dr, Ruben varghese from public health who led us through the covet pandemic and we're here on the other side.

P

So hopefully okay, so our our department, as Mark mentioned, is vast. We provide Human Services from prenatal to the end of life to 50 000 residents through over a hundred programs. We operate through five customer facing service divisions and then the director's office, which has some of the uh backbone services in 2022, our DHS leadership and staff, made a decision to modify our vision mission values to Center race.

P

You can see them up there, the vision and Mission, because um the reason we lead with race is because we are involved in many different systems like health, education, housing, employment, uh all of which, if you look at outcomes for the black indigenous and people of color, tend to be worse than their white counterparts. And so um we believe that by uh partnering with the bypoc community, we can create more Equitable access to our resources and we will intentionally remove uh barriers that we perceive our elements of systemic racism.

P

We're very committed to this vision, mission, values and let me go on to what we're doing in more detail next slide.

P

So I think you all know. um We've I've mentioned this before, but we have a very, very robust uh staff team called reap racial uh Equity advancement, Partners, there's about 40 staff from all levels of DHS who are champions and advocates for racial Justice and model anti-racist behaviors. We have three subcommittees: one is capacity, building developing and facility and training for staff. One is called culturally and racially responsive practices where they've developed, self-assessment tools for programs to examine their responsiveness to equity in their work and another.

P

It's Communications and Community engagement, which provides a newsletter and socializes information.

P

Two really amazing highlights from me for this year that I want you to know about we're undergoing a SWOT analysis, and you remember the training from bird guests and he introduced that SWOT analysis tool. So we uh took that and then our culturally and racially responsive committee modified based on our values, adding specific questions for the areas of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and we are examining uh four domains in our department, employment.

P

You know how we hire and retain people, finance and procurement, how we budget, how we procure our services through external contractors, how we deliver services and how we engage with the community and we're doing an intentional SWOT analysis with the DHS leadership team. Then each division is doing it with their leadership team and um basically so on and so on, and we are going to call all this information and we actually have a person who does this collects 400 500 comments. I'll have to show it to you in Greater.

P

Detail summarizes it by category prioritizes it. We have been voting on what our our priorities will be, and it's going to be all mapped out in a strategic plan for action to be implemented in the next three years. We also have taken all of our performance. Well, 87 of our performance measurement data is now disaggregated by race and ethnicity. So all those performance measurement plans that are linked to the budget. You can find them there.

P

So that's exciting work and now I'm going to move on to DHS initiatives, of which we have many Deborah Warren is going to talk to you about how we've responded to the Mental Health crisis and we still are.

U

Thank you and good afternoon County board members and manager Schwartz. It has been a very busy year focusing on crisis services on enhancing what we currently have and developing new initiatives and, yes, the crisis intervention center. It's very exciting I wanted to share with you um what what we've done to get to where we are. Today, we have done a tremendous amount of work under the leadership of Carol layer, the behavioral health division director and arnisha Moody.

U

The bureau director to first of all to uh we just received word that we have our license for 23 hour crisis stabilization. This is a really big deal because they changed the standards they made them way more rigorous. Now they do require 24, 7 nursing coverage and we are still working on the nursing coverage um through a variety of strategies.

U

We're going to be offering bonuses to nurses that are in DHS to provide coverage for um vacant shifts much as we're doing with our Emergency Services, where we have a number of vacancies and offering bonuses to do that, we're trying to get temps. We still have positions that need to be filled, nursing positions that need to be filled. But currently you should know that we have 10 to 15 walk-ins every single week, especially on the weekends it's really crowded and requires a deep cleaning on on Monday and really exciting.

U

We hired a behavioral health manager for the crisis, intervention Center, so it will be organized and the 19 staff will be will be carefully managed and a nurse practitioner which is very exciting because she is interested in having the cic be a practicum site so that we can then generate a pipeline of Nursing and and future nurse practitioners, um and we have trained all of our staff to distribute naloxone and that's really important.

U

Because just a couple of weeks ago, we saved an individual's life who actually was in a tree outside the cic and got him down, and we he had it. Overdosed in and uh and we were able to bring our training into bear, um the other exciting thing that is being um I've watched by the entire state is the special conservators of the peace aspect of the crisis, intervention Center.

U

So we do have around the clock security guards, but we have worked um with the support of Corey actually on a contract with a vendor um to hire individuals who have been trained through the Department of Criminal Justice. To be these special conservators of the piece and because that's kind of a long phrase, we call them s-cops for short, but they go through a rigorous process of certification that involves the police chief, the court Commonwealth attorney's office and, as a result, once they are certified, they can accept an individual under an emergency custody order.

U

um So this is a really big deal. An emergency custody order, um for those of you don't know, is um where is generally issued by a magistrate and it allows police to take custody of an individual for mental health evaluation for up to eight hours.

U

So this way with the certified s-cops, the police can transfer custody to these individuals and leave and we can do our evaluation. These individuals can also transfer these folks if they need to go to the hospital or you know if they're detained that kind of thing. So um so that's that's a huge. It was a very complicated process to work through protocols and hire. We have 10 s-cops and a supervisor already hired and seven of them have been certified.

U

So this is huge progress, um so we also the other piece about the cic is we're working with the fire police medical director around EMS support for medical clearance and have been working through those protocols. So that's really good.

U

On the negative side, our Emergency Services has a number of vacancies, which is really limiting our ability to provide mobile crisis response co-responder service, with in partnership with the police and emergency, um the ECC coverage. So that is something we are working on. Some strategies to address that are most are our mobile Outreach Services team funded with an air Mark.

U

We have hired one individual and we have to hire a therapist for that team and we are retrofitting a van, but we plan to do a phased approach and roll that service out very shortly, once the peer is on board and oriented. So that's exciting and we also hired a crisis intervention trainer, a training coordinator, so we've started training our law enforcement Partners on how to manage Behavioral, Health crises and we hired a Marcus alert coordinator.

U

Who was kicking off that work in terms of working on the protocols for the levels of response for individuals in crisis. And then we have some significant Regional efforts in terms of our call center, where calls have to 988 have skyrocketed since last July and we expanded our CR2, which is our community crisis. Regional response um to 24 7.. The whole lifespan used to be just kids and um increased our staffing there, so that provides mobile crisis services in the community.

P

Thank you Deborah, um switching to another topic, so you can. You can see the vast array of efforts to that are being put in place and that we have worked on. Deborah has worked on tirelessly over the last year. Well getting on two years now, I, don't know if you're aware of what's happening with Medicaid, but it's big and a lot of work. Okay, Medicaid unwinding! So during the covet Public Health Emergency, uh we were not allowed to review Medicaid Eligibility cases or close any.

P

Unless the person moved away to another jurisdiction. Our numbers went from 18 000 in some odd in 2019 to 28, 000 and 597 in 2022. A 52 percent increase federal emergency is over guess what they want to unwind, that's what they call it unwind all of those cases each and every case has to be re-reviewed for eligibility.

P

um That has started this month. We have until April 2024 to complete it. We do not have sufficient staff. The staff that we already have is already burnt out, because the caseloads have gone up.

P

um We have high turnover in the in the uh eligibility staff because we're competing with neighboring jurisdictions that are offering more competitive salaries or better, better or closer work, so we're hiring on former employees temps, offering overtime and working on that, along with the fact that our snap case load also went up during the pandemic from by 85 percent in terms of applications from 2300 to 42.99 and participation went up by 54 percent, also due to the closure of the or the end of the uh pandemic.

P

This month, every snap recipient will lose 82 dollars a month. um Due to the um you know, rolling back of the of the expanded benefits, Child Care Subsidy involvement has gone up. That's a good thing, uh but it's by 133 percent TANF has gone up by 181 percent, uh so we are facing. uh You know a basically a tsunami in the public assistance. Bureau um and um that's I want to let you know it's a lot of work and it's going to cost money to hire all those temps so um go ahead. Debra.

U

All right um with regard to developmental disabilities, thanks to your generosity, we have a number of projects that are coming to fruition. One is our 1212 Irving Street will be. It's been completely rebuilt to meet the needs.

K

U

High Acuity uh individuals with developmental disabilities, it's going to be finished in four weeks and we will be having an open house in June. We'll invite you all. We did a request for a proposal for the provider to operate the home that closed yesterday, so we've got progress there. We're very excited about that, and I think it'll really be a model.

U

um We are. We have a lot of pressure with individuals graduating from the aps system who um need either day support or supported employment, and some individuals are not quite ready for employment when they come out of school. So to that end we are establishing a community-based employment Readiness program right at Sequoia, Plaza right on our floor, where our old lab used to be we're.

U

Taking that space renovating it and that will enable us to have 15 additional spots for those individuals and it's it's really in line with best practice, because it's Community Based and our goal for opening that is July 1.

U

um and we are prioritizing the grads. You know coming out of school right now, let's see uh Woodmont, which is our day set. One of our day, support programs has 30 clients currently and we are expanding capacity for an additional uh 15 clients again that will be more of a community-based service, so there'll be space for them and, of course, we've added a sensory room which is very exciting, um and then we are doing long-term planning for an additional day support program in Arlington. This came out of our PCG study.

U

Consultant study that we told you about last year was one of their recommendations and we've narrowed down to a couple of possibilities, and then finally, it's DD awareness month so go to Westover, Library and check out the artwork done by um by our clients.

P

Okay, we're on to Ari Arlington addiction, recovery initiative, we're.

U

Very proud of Ari Ari is almost six years old, it'll be six years old this spring um and um we're very proud to announce. If you haven't seen it that Ari was featured on the CBS Evening News nationally to look for their efforts on ensuring access to naloxone. So we are a national model and they were also featured in slate magazine and, of course, ARL.

U

Now um this Cross County community-wide effort distributed almost 2 000 boxes of naloxone, which helps individuals who have overdosed, and it's life-saving um in 2022 and since July this year we have already distributed 3 000. boxes of naloxone. Our goal is that every individual in Arlington get trained on how to administer Narcan, because you never know when you might come across somebody who has overdosed it's free training and it's online check the website. We are also very excited that we have opioid emergency boxes, similar to the AED boxes that you see at all.

U

Our libraries at Marymount, University campus, our own campus, and just this week at the um all APS high schools in the career center and the middle schools are next. So that's a great partnership that we've established with APS in the midst of this crisis, I think we're meeting with APS just about every day on something related to that.

U

um I do want to highlight that last year we had 87 overdoses. 17 of them were fatal this year the, but we did know note that we had a 41 decrease in fatalities, and that is a direct result of our harm reduction efforts with the distribution of Narcan. However, last year 10 of the overdoses were 18 and younger. So far this year we've seen 50 of the overdoses are 18 and younger. So that is our top priority right. There.

P

Thank you, Debra I'm. Sorry, we're rushing, but uh you know we have a lot.

A

Of given the hour, it's appropriate, it's fine.

P

Food security to be forgotten, uh started under mati ferrante's, chair of personship, and um you remember: we had a heightened food insecurity during covid we decided and the manager supported and you've supported the hiring of a coordinator who's been in place now. Two years we did an extensive study with Urban Institute.

P

We developed the first ever Arlington food security, strategic plan, which was published last fall and then recruited a new Coalition of food security members that has 60 active members, including a lot of community folks with lived experience in the budget, you will see a request for 150 000 dollars, nofa for mini grants for food security to be directly applied to the priorities in the Strategic plan, uh where we hope to expand access to food uh in different time frames that people needed different, culturally appropriate foods and lay the groundwork to make more systemic change around food policy.

P

We also have a Vista volunteer who's coming to be a food security. um Member with us this year, eviction prevention, we've already discussed I, don't think we need to go through that, let's go to family preservation and support well.

U

Just briefly, this is our child welfare effort to really work with families to prevent children from going into foster care. We've increased our in-home and Prevention Services by 41 percent, and we see the numbers. So today we only have 58 children in foster care compared to five years ago. So we've cut that in half, which is really important because it's better for children, obviously to grow up with their families and that's what they want.

U

um And then we have you know we're always developing new programs. In the last year, we developed our first episode psychosis program, which is staffed up and running serving 15 clients um really important to intervene early.

U

um We just also developed our raft dementia Services. Now this is a regional program that we manage and it's the result of an 870 000 Grant from the Department of Behavioral Health and developmental Services. We've hired five employees for this project and ramped it up in October this just by the way, just started July 1. So this is a big deal and we're making great strides in Education and Training.

U

The idea of this project is to support families who are caring for their loved ones, with dementia at home to prevent them from going into nursing homes. Okay,.

P

Next slide, so those are a few of our uh a few of our initiatives and accomplishments. um We thought we'd take a moment just to address opioid, specific opioids and substance use. Specifically, these are ideas that are and and potential programs that we have really come up with in the last three weeks, three weeks, yeah um in response to the the surge in the Adolescent um opioid problem, um so Deborah will- and these are not fully uh vetted but they're strong ideas with potential budgets requests attached to them.

P

It's not part of the existing fy24 budget.

A

And if it's okay with you, why don't we just you know, have this displayed for a minute, let's chew on it, but let's not uh send conflicting signals to the community that these are in place, programs or In-Place commitments since.

P

They're still being baked they're still being baked exactly do you want us to go through after you review or just sort of high.

A

Level high level, okay,.

P

U

High level, uh we have an opportunity for um to add a behavioral health therapist through the opioid abatement Authority fund. This.

P

Is this is an actual that's.

U

P

Q

That's an accident.

U

P

Position through opioid abatement, Authority and.

U

One of the things we want to do with that position. It enables us to double our existing obot treatment, office-based um opioid treatment from 20 to 40 individuals, and we would be able to provide medication, assisted treatment to youth 16 and older you're, not allowed to do it federally under 16., and also get a contractor forty five thousand dollars for a contractor to really ensure that we are implementing best practices and give us feedback um and then sort of the high level.

U

What we are considering is where, where talking about the possibility, with the school system of having locally funded, Behavioral, Health therapists provide treatment actually in the schools and one other piece is we are working regionally with the others, Community Services boards on um developing a res, a medical withdrawal and residential program for with the top priority being adolescents. We want to develop a 22 bed uh program for youth who have opioid dependence. We also are working on one for adults.

U

We've developed that RFP it's going out and we also applied for a grant with the Department of Behavioral, Health and developmental services to support those programs. So.

A

Hopefully substantial good news to share at a future time.

P

Future times, yes, yeah, okay next slide we're moving right right along okay. These are our budget highlights, but we already discussed the South Irving group home. So we don't need to do that. We don't need to discuss food security grants. I do want to bring to your attention something that you may not know about called class.

P

Another unfunded, another unfunded, State mandate, along with the unwinding um Virginia quality birth through five, is the name of the Virginia's quality Initiative for child care, they've now renamed it rebranded it and added a new component because it wasn't enough um the you know. We have a small and mighty team of four people who inspect our 193 license programs right. They do two inspections per year: that's 386 inspections.

P

Okay, under this class Virginia quality birth through five, it is now being required to do two observations of each classroom within each center right, so you could have 10 classrooms in the center. You could have five right two per year. That's an additional 244 observations, so there's going to be a total of 630 visits, um so we are requesting, and the manager has said we should move forward with. You got the request to you for an additional child care specialist to do this work because uh can't be done without it.

P

It's just not enough time in the day. That's what that is about food security. Let's go to the next slide. I'm sorry, I'm rushing but I I feel compelled to you're missing your kid's birthday dinner.

P

No, that's not good! Now, I'm gonna feel guilty.

A

Let's keep it going: okay,.

P

All right, um I just want you to know. You know the manager discussed in the beginning, how much work we have taken on. This is the graph that represents the growth of our department. Okay, um we have exponentially grown over the past five years in response to the burgeoning critical needs of the community.

P

Was the pandemic, the eviction prevention, the housing, affordability, the Behavioral Health Care, the opioid epidemic homelessness, Demarcus alert the food security, the child care initiative, it's a lot okay and we keep on adding fdes, for which we're very grateful and the resources that we're getting. You know you can see, there's a basically 32 percent growth in our expenditures over the last five years.

P

Of course, we do generate a quite a bit of Revenue 23 over the last five years, um but the ftes that we add are for Direct Services right. We had a therapist, we had a child care licenser, we had a landlord engagement. We have not added commensurately the backbone help that is needed to make our department sustainable, and let me just tell you some fun facts.

P

The current organizational structure that we have was created by Ron Carly in 1998, okay, 25 years ago, uh was great and it's held out, but we're not the same agency 25 years later, um and so we also have I have the exact same Staffing in the department in the director's office that I had when Suzanne Eisner left. Okay, that was seven years ago Okay. So it's not tenable for the future sustainability and for succession planning.

P

As you can see, we are looking at the our plans.

P

uh We want to be able to leave the department in good shape, with a strategic plan, a solid strategic plan with an organizational structure that can last the next 25 years, God willing- and so we are we're we're going to do some reorganization, we're going to do some reallocation internally.

P

The public health is reorganizing based on its its um Reflections during the pandemic and we're going to be discussing with the manager and the human resources department how we can move forward with this right. Okay, so you'll hear more about that. Next, I don't want to miss the cake from okay vacancy rates. All right. This is our current uh highlights of some of our current pain points in vacancies. Okay, because you need people to deliver Services, you don't have the people, you can't deliver the service okay, so we have about 844 current positions allocated.

P

Okay, even that's because we have these bits and pieces of fdes. We have a relatively low I. Think vacancy rate 11 is not too bad, but you can see in certain areas. It's very high nurse practitioners, 50 Behavioral, Health, therapists, overall 22 percent in Child and Family Services, where we have all those opioid issues: 37 vacancy Emergency, Services, clinicians, still 21, even though we are begging, people and rewarding them to take these overnight, shifts and shifts that are uncovered Public Assistance benefits workers.

P

Remember the Medicaid, unwinding 59 turnover resigned in the last two and a half years. Okay, and so that's a problem, because when you have new staff and they're not trained up, you have inaccuracies. Your accuracy rate starts going down, and that brings attention from the you know, external parties. So we have to really think strategically and we will be doing this. Michelle and Mark are are supportive and with human resources, how we can more, we can build in more uh better kinds of packages of incentives, differential pay.

P

You know we pay the same level of of um salary to someone who is in an office-based clinical position as someone who's in the gym and they're dealing with you know, people who are incarcerated. We have no different paid differential for emergency services, even though they're working like all hours of the night. So we have to start looking at this very critically so that we can really incentivize. Otherwise, we will have wait lists which we already have in children, family services and are very likely to have in Adult Services.

P

So that's my uh my plea next slide. Anything else that we're adding oh this is our proposed changes. Our budget changes we're. We have an increase of six percent overall 183 million. That's a lot of money. I feel tremendous responsibility shouldering this.

P

um We have an increase of 21 ftes. However, um 15.25 of those are Grant funded um and one is funded with the opioid abatement of funds and 5.85 our net tax support, but one of them is reallocated within our department.

P

Next, these are the details of the proposed changes. The only one here I will point out is we are requesting a quality assurance manager for Eid. We don't have anyone devoted to Quality Assurance in a division that is 43 million dollars worth of funding and has programs like housing, employment and all these safety nets.

P

We need someone dedicated to Quality to data and timeliness and accuracy of our data, um and the security coordinator is something that you had approved before we're still recruiting that it's so that we can have appropriate oversight of the s-cops and all the other kinds of um um security issues that occur on our campus next slide, I'm not going to go through all these conservatives of the peace contract is expensive, 941 thousand dollars, that's a lot of money um and then, of course- and we mentioned the expansion of the DD programs, the DD Residential Services match.

P

You want to talk about that. Deborah.

U

That is because uh dmas raised the rates, uh the Medicaid rates for residential services to ensure that there were adequate caregivers, and so we have to match that rate for our individuals who are in group homes who are locally funded.

P

Next slide, we've already discussed this food security eviction prevention next slide, job Avenue go ahead, Deborah.

U

Yeah there we go job Avenue is our contracted, supported employment and educational, a program that supports individuals who have serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders. But what we've noticed is that um are participation in that program has steadily declined since 2019, by about 75 percent. I have heard that there are. You know there are alternatives like DARS provides a strong program and of course we have our own employment center, um the.

U

If, if, except if this reduction is accepted, it would result in an average caseload of 21, which is well within the best practice range established by samhsa. Okay,.

P

Next slide, finally, these are just you know. This is our food for thought, um where our budget pressures will be in the future. This is where you all will be involved in all these conversations. What will we do to respond to the substance use treatment for adolescents?

P

uh uh What will we need to contribute to public-private Partnerships or Regional Partnerships and that address Mental Health?

P

um How will eviction prevention play out? You know? Even do we need to put in more kinds of uh tightening of Eligibility criteria, housing grants? What will the housing grants study uh indicate in terms of recommendations and what will that cost and what I mentioned before? What will be needed in order to restructure our organization and reallocate internally, hopefully to meet the needs going forward? And that concludes my presentation. Well,.

A

Thank you very much Miss Freeman Ms Warren and now like to invite our Borah Johnson from the commission and the status of women to join us at the front and I see Wendy Crawford in the back from the csb. No.

P

She's, not here, okay, Wendy's online.

A

And do we also have Linda Kelleher online? Here's.

U

A

Great all right, why don't we start off with you Wendy and.

Q

A

Chair Crawford and then we'll go to Linda Keller for Kelleher and then Ms Johnson. If you would back clean up for us. Thank you.

N

Thank you so much chair, uh Dorsey I had prepared remorsement manager, Sports just stole some of the Thunder I. Think. A lot of my remarks are just expressing gratitude. So I want to thank you and the and the board for um for the budget proposal and for the time to talk about it. This evening.

N

um You know the board has a long history of supporting the work of DHS and the Community Services Board staff, and we're so grateful for that and appreciate the value that's placed on ensuring that some of our most vulnerable citizens do receive consistent, Quality Care in our community, and we recognize that it's.

N

You know it's the leadership of this board and the decisions that you make, which directly impact the overall climate and culture in our community and we and make it a wonderful place to live and work and we're grateful to see that those decisions take into account those in our community who do receive Services due to disability or Edition. So thank you for that.

N

I also want to take a quick second to appreciate not only Anita and Deborah for their tireless work, but all of the staff Liaisons who support the community services board and all of our committees they've been very responsive to us through this community Through the budget process, responding to our questions and concerns and, of course, all the front line staff who are working so hard I, don't need to reiterate what several people have already referenced in their presentations this evening and in comments about the the Mental Health crisis, the substance use crisis and the intersection of that with the shortage in available providers.

N

So what I do want to highlight is that we see in this budget a really thoughtful approach to using resources wisely to to weaving together lots of different resources, reallocating those when it's needed looking at Creative Solutions for the future, in the forums of the regional programs and the public private Partnerships.

N

um All of that was a really relatively minor or modest increase in Behavioral Health positions to meet the needs. So the one piece that I will highlight again is the um the need for robust Recruitment and Retention bonuses like that is.

N

We can't have all these wonderful programs, but if we can't staff them, that is a problem and I want to emphasize that that investment um is really important, because that's what's going to help us um as we roll through this crisis, which was is still unfolding, we're not it's not that we see an end to it. It's not that we're.

N

We know whether we're at the most peak of it the highest peak of it, but these Investments are what's going to help us, have the staff to run the programs that will help to mitigate um the the current and the future anticipated ongoing needs. So I will stop with that, because I know time is really important. But uh thank you so much for this opportunity and thank you for this budget proposal. We fully support what the staff has presented this evening.

A

Thank you very much chair Crawford for uh being concise and certainly know that uh if there was more that you want to share with us, we will look forward to other opportunities throughout the budget process. So next we'll move to miss Kelleher.

L

Q

P

You Linda, oh yes,.

Q

Thank you chair and thank you all for allowing me to be here today. I'm Linda, kelleherd, chair of the Commission on Aging I've, lived in Arlington almost 50 years, and my goal here today is to talk about the focus of our older adults in Arlington, a growing population of about 38 000 people over age, 60 approaching 20 percent of our population here in Arlington are almost one of five Arlington residents.

Q

Older adults are a vital to our community Workforce economy volunteer for including those who give their time on commissions and advisory boards, and we definitely appreciate their work. Older adults have voiced their preference to stay in their homes and Community, but many are unable to do so. We really value the hard work of the very important presentation that Deborah and Anita made today and the highlight of increasing Demand on DHS Services we're seeing an impact very much among our older neighbors.

Q

More older adults need services and are at risk of eviction homelessness and facing food insecurity. They are also struggling with increased needs for transportation, prescription and Medical classes was described earlier. Arlington's aging and disability division serves at the front line of supporting and advocating for the older adults in our community and persons with disabilities and their caregivers. Since the start of the epidemic that we are just coming out of, the demand for services had grown significantly and consistency, for example, the need for additional funding and resources for the community living program.

Q

A vital in-home services program for lower income individuals has seen a 62 percent increase in the number of Assessments completed each month and two Adult Protective Services. Their team has recorded 97 reports last month, just in February there are more than 400 guardianship cases to which the division provides oversight in support of a management intern that we would like to see converted to a full-time position and in the aging and disabilities Resource Center.

Q

We need to help with the processing of nearly 850 annual requests for both financial assistance to prevent evictions, utility cutoffs and 115 referrals for shelter for adults who are 60 and older.

Q

On behalf of the commission, I ask that you continue to assess the changing population and increase the resources to support older adults, especially those in need of acute services like Adult, Protective, Services and Senior adult mental health, as well as ongoing supports to the Community Living Program for ongoing care that helps to reduce risks that may lead to the higher cost of institutional placement and loss of housing.

Q

Arlington continues to lead the region, the state and the nation in our Innovative approach to Affordable assisted living through unique collaboration between the county and Community organizations like Mary, Marshall and Culpepper garden. Thank you for increasing the funding in this budget to Culpeper Garden, assisted living and for continuing the efforts to expand affordability in assisted living. The commission values your commitment to ensuring that assisted living is available for all people of all income levels, but I have to ask if you can do more in assisted living in transportation and Community Living. Please do so.

Q

If you can, we are the 250th age-friendly community of now 780, some in the country, and it is, it offers a choice to persons of all ages and stages. We applaud the County's efforts to expand housing options and encourage that we continue to build, affordable, accessible housing offers safe and reliable and accessible transportation and fund in-home services that help individuals who are age, 60 and older.

Q

As I conclude my remarks, I would be remiss if I did not mention our community engagement form coming up on Monday the 20th from 9 30 to 12 30, and we hope that other board members will join um Miss Crystal to as she provides opening remarks at this Premier event. When we ask the older adults in our community what is most important to them, this helps us shape our strategic planning and advise the County Board to take action to become inclusive for all of all ages and of all demographics.

Q

Thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity and thank you for all. You do for Arlington.

A

Thank you, chair Kelleher. We appreciate it and I'll turn it over to Ms Johnson, representing the commission on the status of women. Welcome.

V

Thank you is this working I'm Arbor Johnson here on behalf of the commission on the status of women. I will note that my seventh grader at Swanson Middle School, learned about County Board processes in her civics class and informed me. I had three minutes to speak so give it that I and other constraints I will stick to it. um Thank you. There are a number of things in the budget that are commendable, I'll Point quickly to a few of them.

V

Expansion of Parental leave policy, increasing increase in adoption assistance, increasing the FSA dependent care match for County Employees. We applaud that Family Planning Services, provided already are exceptional in terms of long-acting, reversible contraceptives, STI testing, maternal Health, Care Services. We were also very pleased to see the increased Family Planning grants.

V

So we would ask that you consider additional prioritization specifically for abortion Services. We are in a post-related country, maybe State, and it is unclear whether abortion is available in Arlington.

V

um We did a very um informal toothpick pull at the Arlington County Fair and reproductive Health was the issue chosen. We had almost a thousand responses and uh reproductive Health was of utmost priority to those who participated in our poll.

V

um So we would ask that you um augment the county-sponsored health care center we'd like to see an expansion of the budget to provide complete sexual health and reproductive care services, including Doula, Midwife care, uh hormone replacement, therapy, emergency contraception, medication and abortion.

V

So really, thank you for your attention to this um and then the second area I'll just point to quickly is the commission would love to see better County data about women and gender Equity um available. I know it's really great that the county has prioritized making racial data available, we'd love to push on the gender front, um specifically better public availability of data on sexual assault and violent crime, including the breadth and consistency of data, support for efficient download into widely used spreadsheet programs and the ability to analyze data by County boundaries.

V

um Secondly, making public the percentage and numbers of female hires by the county buying across each division and department and number of hires by gender at each compensation level. We think this is just important for transparency. Compensation levels are important to gender Equity, especially as we're hiring new people, and people are turning over and finally, public availability of performance measures, indicating gender equity in the delivery and or promotion of small business support services, um and then finally, I did want to point to an APS issue.

V

I know um this is not an APS budget hearing, but um APS is working on providing as per state law. It's probably unfunded menstrual supplies in bathrooms, specifically at Arlington, public school middle schools and high schools. It is not yet in place. I, don't know if you've ever been to a bathroom on the fourth floor of Washington Liberty, but trying to get down to the nurse's office to get menstrual supplies is not going to happen. Kids have their own clubs to end period poverty.

V

My son just told me about it and I said well, they shouldn't have to do that. We should be providing it so I know it is in the works, but I would just urge continued attention to that and that I would also like to especially thank Miss Crystal for your efforts on child care.

V

There's more to be done and my kids are now child care providers instead of needing it themselves, but um but let's keep pushing and I hope that others will take on the mantle as you leave the County board. So with that, thank you and we have our commission on the status of meeting of women meeting at seven o'clock if you'd care to join on the first floor, everyone is welcome. Thank you. Well,.

A

Thank you for joining us for this Miss Johnson and my apologies for putting the accent on the wrong syllable in your first name. I will not forget arbora in the future. There we go, and so thanks to you thank you to uh chairs Kelleher and Crawford. We do appreciate it and we did not have MS uh prio today, right, okay, beautiful colleagues, um since it would be wholly inconsistent with having covered the department that covers Child and Family Services to keep a mom away from her preschool-aged child.

A

So we're going to allow Miss Crystal to go first and and then continue. I.

I

Appreciate that everybody I'm currently missing his fourth birthday dinner overseas all day, so I'm going to ask a couple questions and then tip out. I appreciate everyone. It's forbearance, um uh two questions actually about child care before I. Do that just wanted to say it by way of thanks? I really appreciate the csws on abortion, services and I wanted to thank um uh Dr, varghese and now I know.

I

Kurt Larrick, who had been in touch um with the conversation I had initiated with Planned Parenthood of Metro Washington, and it looks like they're areas of greatest need are actually around the exact type of thing that our Department of Public, Health and DHS does so well, which is community-based, Health provision and really forming those relationships with our community members figuring out what their needs are, which is a really important part of connecting them to services.

I

So it may not be the provision of abortion services, but I think it's really an area where I was so pleased to see that the way that DHS and Public Health Works really syncing up with that need for the full spectrum of reproductive care. Okay, two quick things or one quick thing and then one slightly longer, but um I gotta say the The more I've been sitting with this. This point about the child care, classroom observation and scoring unfunded mandate like just the angrier, it makes me it's.

I

um It is incredibly frustrating because we have plenty of places to put child care resources, and this is not one and I also know from talking to Providers. This was the thing they were most worried about when Child Care shifted from the Department of of Human Services Statewide to education, that it would just be this total loss of focus on the fact that this is an industry in crisis struggling to hire and instead treating them I mean they are academic environments and that's important, but they are also in crisis long roundabout way of saying.

I

Is there how far down the path are they of requiring this? Is there an opportunity for us to maybe work with some others around the region in the state to just write a letter uh to get our general assembly legislators involved to help them understand what a mistake this is.

P

It's a it's a done deal. Yeah, it's been put into regulations all.

I

Right- and this is It's been done at the regulatory level right, it's not been done, it's not it's, not a matter of State policy, no I, don't think so. I.

P

Think it's it said so.

I

I do think it's probably worth I'll try to do that. Offline I think maybe the point being. This is a position we're going to need, irrespective but I, but I would like to engage some of our um uh General Assembly members and colleagues around the region because I my God, what misplaced, Focus right?

I

um Thank you for uh metabolizing that ask and and putting it in the form of this actionable request of us. Okay, my other thought was- or my other question was um really appreciated- the comments about um how we have been adding programmatic staff without adding to the backbone for at this point, 25 years and I know that there is some advocacy in the community about the idea of having kind of a dedicated, Child Care person.

I

The way that we have a dedicated food security coordinator um I generally share our manager's empathy, as is Czar free diet, as he puts it, because I do think that can lead to kind of siled features and I also think it's really illustrative when you talk about that lack of capacity in some ways, I think um how Ms Hopkins has worked is almost mattered as much as what she is working on and the need to have people who can work cross-departmentally into interdivisionally across sectors.

I

um I would like to pursue the idea over the coming weeks with my colleagues about adding um not to make one of your staff blush, but basically another Caitlin Hutchison, who has done this type of work so amazingly well in the past, maybe to start or definitely I'd prefer to start by focusing on the C CI but then be available for these kind of big projects. I was interested in reactions to that thought. Well,.

P

You know we've been in talking about this. For years already now we had developed a very comprehensive plan. If you remember, you were the leader of those in those efforts uh that had I think three, almost three to five years of actionable items, not just the cphd zoning Parts but working you know we've and some of them.

P

We have implemented like CDA training or um you know more trainings for providers, but we couldn't shoulder that community-wide effort once the pandemic started, Caitlyn became you know the the guru of all things, emergency Marcus alert, and she was basically you know handing out PPE to all of the non-profits, but um so it wouldn't be her, but I do think it merits.

P

I do think it's in a it's it's an area that is substantive in terms of the depart, the Departments that it touches, and it does require some coordination and Leadership, be it in our department or somewhere else, I, I, think and similarly, with the food security that wouldn't have come together, so well, I think without having a a coordinator, yeah responsible for it.

I

Well, I I think for for my thought. What I'd really love to see as a coordinator who can work across topics right? Who can you know, manage uh there's a huge body work on affordable child care right? That is maybe two three years worth of fork and then I know there will be something new right and so, rather than have these kind of vestigial folks who are siled into their topics, finding someone who has the capacity as we've seen members of your team do to be able to to do that.

I

How across topics I think could be a real asset, so I'm glad you're doing that work and hope kind of the reorganize and I hope that'll be an opportunity to do it. Thank you so much Mr, chair I, will stop monopolizing the floor and I.

A

Appreciate turn your microphone off and go to your son all right next Vice, chair, Garvey. Okay, thank you wish him a happy birthday from us.

L

Yeah blow out some candles, um the conservatives are the piece I was thinking about them in that they were expensive, but I'm assuming having Security on site, would be reassuring to people who work there and actually might help attract and retain employees where we need them. Is that a is that a correct assumption.

U

I I think you're right I. Think you have to keep in mind that that one of the outcomes that we are hoping for is to reduce police overtime in terms of you know, basically guiding individuals. You know that are that are in custody for emergency custody orders. So.

L

U

L

So there's always been security there in the offices all the time.

U

Security, but it is not, um those individuals um cannot receive custody from law enforcement.

L

U

A legal thing it.

L

Has to be right: okay, thank you. um I had one other Minds, we'll just go just real quickly. I know that the volunteer Guardians program for the underaging and disability that fascinated me, because it sounds like a really needed, particularly when you're talking about the Adult, Protective, Services and they're volunteers, and you have a good number of them. Do you want to talk about that a little bit not too much because we're late, but that seems like a very good model. Wings.

U

Yeah we have a program called Wings and staff have kind of coordinated a number of volunteers, but it's there's there's a lot of work to be done, because the volunteer Guardians have to submit regular reports. I actually know this, because I was a guardian myself for a loved one um and um so yeah. There's a real press on on the amount of time that that takes also people are not stepping up to volunteer to be.

L

So we don't have that number. You need.

U

To have recruitment, okay,.

L

I thought we had all those people and I was impressed. No.

P

We haven't, we have a lot my moon is on. She could probably give us the details, but um we did have a position who was responsible for the guardian program and we cut that right several years ago before there's my Moana and now we have um a management intern who's in charge.

T

That's correct, Anita and Deborah. Our volunteer guardianship program consists of around 30 volunteer Guardians, some of them being arlingtonian residents, others being attorneys, and they do this. The attorneys do it, of course, pro bono, but what we saw over the last couple of years during the pandemic, as well as everyone else, is a high turnover so now we're trying to keep Pace with the demand of the need for Guardians for our most vulnerable adults and matching them with a volunteer Guardian.

T

A number of our vulnerable adults are limited in resources and cannot afford to pay for an attorney or have a guardian or don't have a family member that will serve in that capacity. So it is a valuable program.

L

Absolutely and not maybe covering the need as much as it might. Thank you.

A

Okay, thank you, Mr Karen, Thomas and then we'll end up with.

H

Mr defrant very brief, Mr chair. um Thank you for all that very insightful. I I wouldn't know where to start. If we had a longer conversation about one thing slide: nine, the slide with the vacancies is, is obviously you know full of flags, but specifically the public assistance benefit workers. uh To be honest, I I hear very often at least once a week that it has become more difficult to access, Services Etc. It begins to really cut it to the Bowl.

H

It's an equity issue as well, because you know those who who have released ability to to access the services are now also the least served. So what is the outlook for that and whether we eat our Alternatives at least to temporarily Shore up the program? Well,.

P

We've had some conversations um with the deputy County Manager about requesting some over strength positions right now to at least get our caseload under control, and that could be done quickly. Of course, you know there is a lot of competition in the region for these positions, so um I think we also have our teams are. We have you know people supervising 14, 15 staff.

P

We probably need additional supervisors because there's too many direct reports and we just now created a senior eligibility, a staff position because there was no sort of pathway for Mobility every everyone has the exact same position unless you're a supervisor, and that has to be built in because otherwise it's really not incentives to stay around at the same job.

P

For the you know you can, you can move around more agiley with more agility in the Prince William and some other neighboring jurisdictions, so I'm, where I am going to pursue that request with the manager on the over strengths, Mr manager,.

B

The the conversations I'd like to say that you know we need to be more creative at the same time. I don't want you to think that just money will solve the issue so we're taking, and this has been our number one priority. We've been doing it over the last couple of weeks when it comes to behavioral health care workers. So we're having a series of meetings with that and we will report back to you in a few weeks on the status. Thank.

H

You I know it's not.

K

Mr defranti, thank you. Mr, chair, um Mr manager. You must have thought I, hadn't read the full budget. I'd see in my notes that the second Behavior Behavioral Health docket person is in and so I may be retracting that Future Hope um at least that's what my notes have.

B

For the Department of Human Services, so that not there's not anything there for the courts got.

K

It okay, so that need is still there. That proves you're honest, because I know that adding fdes is not your is not your your dream but um I, just wanna the backbone and structure and the support for the senior I'm really at a moment of panic today that procam in Perez was not on a call that I was on and she turns out she's on vacation, so I was more relaxed.

K

There's a quality assurance person um that that I think might help her in her economic independence, but I want to align behind Miss Crystal's thought with respect to Partnerships or child care as well. As you know, additional in case you don't do this you're not doing this in 10 or 15 years, I feel like senior staff wise, there's a real thing that I'm concerned about so I'm. Those are the two thoughts and uh there'll be other days to discuss. Thank you, Mr, chair.

A

Well, thank you, Mr deferanti. Thank you, colleagues. Any budget questions, any things that did not get addressed through this afternoon. We can always submit in writing, and you know, make those Superstars over at DHS like brookham and Perez, and Caitlin Hutchinson write up the responses for it right there we go and.

P

Just and just want to let you know, we have a lot of superstars in our department.

I

P

Very grateful to our staff, who are still on the phone because without them their commitment, their dedication is just unparalleled. So.

A

And on that we will end this work session. Thank you. Everyone, not just two of you and all of your staffs, but staff of cphd, as well as all of our commissioners, for contributing to a great work session. Today, we'll reconvene again in this room on March 14th at 3 P.M, where we'll have the department of Technology Services as well as Arlington, Economic Development, we are now adjourned. Thank you.

D