Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm going to call to order the Board of Supervisors Wednesday, February 25th, 2026, 12 p.m.

meeting here in room 241.

We have with us today, Supervisor Sally Duncan of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor B.

Lapista currently of the Ravana District, Supervisor Fred Missel of the Samuel Miller District.

Supervisor Mike Truitt of the Scottsville District.

Supervisor Ann Malik is on the way.

She was hitting all the red lights as she was coming here.

So she she will be joining us as soon as she arrives.

Also with us, our executive county executive, Mr.

Jeff Richardson, Deputy County Executive Mr.

Trevor Henry, Deputy County Executive Ann Wall, Chief Financial Officer Jake Sutner.

We have a whole slew of staff and folks with us from to be in support of what we are meeting for today.

Our board clerk, Miss Claudette Margerson, is with us as well.

A couple of ground rules if you uh uh somebody's gonna have to give up their chair for the school board chair, please.

Sorry, welcome to the school board chair.

Thank you for coming.

And I see other elected school board members here as well, and our superintendent, Dr.

Haas.

So thank you all for joining.

Um couple of ground rules real quick.

Room 241 is notorious in terms of sound capability as it goes out into the world in public.

So I'd like to remind everyone as you're speaking today that although we seem to be in a closer, more intimate setting, that you need to use your presentation voice because the mics are in the ceiling.

So talking down and without some uh enunciation and volume is going to not translate out into the world, and there are folks that are listening both here in Land Auditorium but uh online as well.

So I just ask that you do direct your voices uh at least up to the ceiling and project, please.

Um, and we'll call you out as if needed if we feel like we're getting there.

So don't take offense if I give you the adjust your voice, please.

Um, but with that, we're here today to do.

I mean, we've kicked us, it feels like we kicked off budget season 10 years ago, but today's the official presentation uh where the board receives the county executive's budget, and it officially gets handed over to the board for our consideration, and we will begin our uh budget work sessions, public hearings, etc.

That will eventually leave us to taking a final uh vote on the budget.

So, with that, Mr.

County Executive, good afternoon, and I'll turn things over to you.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh I think we referred to it feels like we work on the budget year-round.

It's because to some degree we do, sir.

And we're gonna talk about that today in the presentation of some of the work that we have done to get to where we are today.

So thank you very much for the introduction and board.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your hard work that you put into this job every day, not just during the budget season, but 52 weeks during the year.

Our staff considers it a partnership with each and every one of you.

You have your role, we have ours.

Today is the official start of this budget process.

We'll recommend it today, and then we've got a series of work sessions where we look really forward to digging in with the board in our community, answering questions, recognizing that the board has a a lot of work ahead.

I'll take a second to thank our staff.

Uh, the county staff, uh led by Jacob Sumner, our chief finance officer, but we have an amazing budget team, an amazing group of people that have worked diligently and very hard to get us before we are today, as well as our department to work collaboratively and cooperatively back through the budget process.

It's a give and take process, and I couldn't be more proud of the team that we work with every day.

And finally, I'm gonna take a second and recognize Matt Haas, our superintendent of county schools, because it's not just about county government today, it is about our most valued partner, Almore County Public Schools.

Superintendent Haas uh texted me this morning early, probably either before or right after his swim, and he said, good luck today.

I hope it goes well.

And one thing I can tell you is that he meant it.

He means it every day.

There's stress in our budget in our work with schools.

Some of that's designed by the framework in Virginia of how we work together, but behind the scenes, our staffs work really hard to help each other and do what we can to help each other every day.

So, Matt, thank you, and thank you to your team for your hard work.

All right, board, let's go.

So, we're gonna jump into this.

Hey, board, I'm gonna warn you before we get started.

We went back and looked at the last two years, and Abby Stump, our community and public engagement director, reminded me that we had about 45 slides last year and the year before.

Well, today I'd like to tell you that we've cut this presentation down to 44 slides.