Chapman, can you hear me?

Hey Brian, I can hear you.

Can you hear me?

Brian, can you hear me?

I can hear you, sir.

Can you hear me?

I can hear you.

Can you hear me?

You're coming in a little low.

Uh one minute.

Okay, sorry about that.

No worries.

Can we have another mic, Chester?

Say again.

We can hear you.

All right, perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

How do you do it?

There's more.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our third budget work session.

It is 7.01.

So we're now going to call this meeting to order.

Today's focus is on the city departments related to our bucket of safe, secure, and just.

I think everyone knows this is a new space for us.

So this is the first time we're trying this out.

This is also the first work session where we have multiple different agencies.

So what we're going to ask is as the slides go through, whoever is speaking on behalf of that agency, there are three seats here.

So you'll just come up and then when the council finishes questions, um, you will just sit back down.

And I do know we have a number of members of the public.

Today is a day where we don't take public testimony.

Um, but you know, you're able to um send us any comments or you're able to come testify on Saturday, March 14th.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Director Route to begin the presentation, and we'll start with our first department.

Uh good evening, Madam Mayor, members of council, Morgan Route, Director of Management Budget, Assistant Director Anne Amanda Hamm is with me.

And as you said, uh, we have uh mostly one slide per department.

We're just going to go through them.

We'll have a brief overview from each department head, but we're really here just to answer your questions tonight and have a discussion.

So we will start with the police department.

And I'll turn it over to the chief.

Hi Chief.

Good evening, madam mayor, vice mayor, members of council.

Uh, there were three primary areas as relates to PD where there were uh budgetary reductions that are to be recommended.

Uh the first one is the adjustment of the security contract.

Uh that specifically speaks to uh our security personnel that sits at the front desk at the police station.

Uh the second area is going to be uh elimination or reduction in our parking enforcement officers, uh which are supported through uh contractual supplemented through contractual obligations.

Uh and then the third one is gonna be the collective bargaining agreement, uh as you all are aware.

Uh mayor council made a recommendation to the city manager uh due to the uh cost and difference of the collective bargain agreement, uh and that's supported by the reduction of nine uh open law enforcement positions.

I will I will just add as a as a clarion to that, uh what you also see in front of you is uh the officer to resident ratio.

Uh initially when we were talking about 322 sworn, uh we were above um probably I think it was 2.3 uh in the average of uh ratio to uh citizen is at about 1.61.

Uh so even with the reduction to 313 on our sworn staff, uh we will be at 1.97 as a relation as I'm sorry, as it relates to the ratio of citizen officer ratio questions.

So just for clarification, so the 313 number on here is the number that would be the proposed authorized force.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Um Vice Mayor Bagley.

Um thank you for the updated sort of comparative data.

And um, just so I'm clear, the there were nine vacant positions that are proposed to be reduced.

Are there will there be any remaining vacancy?

Like after that.

Yes, yes, there are there are still will be some remaining vacancies in the organization.

Uh we're authorized currently at 322.

Uh, and so if you recall there was kind of a cost difference of about two million dollars, uh and you know, subject to their recommendation from from council, uh this identifies about a million dollars.

Okay.

And uh are there any um my understanding is that you've just you know you just completed roughly your first year on the job, and in that time there's been some reevaluations of sort of our methodologies and geographies and placements, and so I'm curious, does this proposal impact the plan you had in place?

And so I'm curious, does this proposal impact the plan you had in place?

Will you, you know, be anticipating modifying sort of the structure you'd envisioned after your first year on the job?

Yeah, so I can tell you that right now we're working through the re-evaluation of geospatial areas, which are kind of our beats in our sectors throughout the city.

And we're not only looking at just call density, right, as relates to that, uh, but we're also looking at uh other areas such as response times uh and metrics that police departments look at.

Uh what I will say is that historically, uh, once we do reach maximum staffing, subject to that evaluation, uh the through through mayor and council and the city manager's direction to re-evaluate uh if we should need over hires.

Uh and so I think that is kind of like a supplemental response to that.

But our goal is to identify a plan uh to where we reach maximum staffing, but then also to ensure that based off of the call density and the redistricting of the city that we can improve some of those efficiencies and service.

Thank you.

And um, one last question, a little separate topic is um we've stood up, we've moved forward um pretty significantly this year with our office of the police auditor, the independent officer of the auditor.

And that obviously has brought with it a little bit of um just additional workload in terms of communication and and um responsiveness.

And um, I'll ask, I'll be asking that off as a similar question, but um, do you feel equipped in this budget and um sort of in the progress so far in that working dynamic that your office and her office has what they need um and has the relevant staffing aside, you know, assigned to to keep that process moving forward?

Yes, you know, I I would say that the first you know, part of that was getting the MOU done, right?

Uh and uh I think for the police department uh and for their Pacific office, especially um uh with our being a kind of an acting assignment, right?

That is settling now.

Uh there has been ongoing communication at the executive level.

Uh, and so you know, I think it's it's working as it should.

There are absolutely uh some some bumps and bruises along the way, right?

But that is that is kind of corrected at the executive level through what that communication is.

Councilwoman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Chief.

Um, just a question on the security contract.

Can you tell me what's included in a security contract and what adjustments are being made?

So ideally 24-7.

Uh, we have had two security officers at the front desk.

Uh, and I think it's important to note their role and responsibility is is as people come into the building, uh, right, to check them, right, to ensure that they're not bringing any type of weaponry uh inside the building, but also just kind of service as a target hardening when you're coming from the police station.

Um, so in evaluating uh this specific area, uh I think it's also important to note that our front desk closes uh at a certain time uh and people can buzz themselves in and out of the building.

Uh so their primary role is kind of security protocols reviewing and assessing cameras uh around the footprint of the building.

Uh there are some times that, you know, historically, maybe in the evening time that the front desk may get busy.

Uh, but this is a this is an area that was identified uh that I think we can manage uh that security officer is armed at the front desk.

Uh and it should they need some type of substantial assistance, uh then they can contact us as we have law enforcement in the building.

Uh Councilman Gary.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Uh Chief, thanks for being here.

Uh to expand a little bit on Councilwoman Green's uh questions around uh the contract for security.

Is it part of a larger contract that we have throughout the city, or is it something that needed to be additionally specialized since it's at the police department?

And is it possible to you know weave it into a larger contract?

Well, it it's it's managed by the general services.

I think it it is a part of the larger contract uh surrounding the entire city, uh, but it is sectioned off specifically in sections for the police department.

Uh, and so uh if if that answers your question, it is a part of a larger contract, but as it relates to, I would argue that there are different security footprints, right?

That around the city that may require more coverage uh because there are there are not officers, right?

Sworn um uh armed officers in all other city buildings where they supplement, right, as a as an officer.

Um, and last question, and this is uh shout out to councilman Chapman.

Um I think we may have explored this in the past, but uh for deputy manager Lambert or for Director Route, uh, can we get a question around um combining the security contract with ACPS, if there's any type of savings we could do, if it's similar or just completely different different type of personnel?

Yes, I believe Councilman Chapman already submitted that we're okay.

Perfect.

All right.

Um then I was uh and looking at this, there's a 32% change in the capital goods outlay on page 14.59, uh going from almost three million, almost about a million dollar savings.

I don't know if there's anything you could say uh for the capital goods outlay and what some of that saving is.

Is it we're not buying new vehicles?

Is it something else?

Um I chief, I think I can question capital goods outlay is where we budget for the purchase of vehicles and other equipment out of our equipment replacement fund.

So most of those, if not all of those expenditures are already outside of the general fund, they're in the uh fund that we contribute money into for the future replacement of vehicles, and then we spend it when it comes time to replace them.

The nature of the replacement schedule is cyclical and it might be higher in one year and lower in the next year.

And so you'll see that go up and down in various departments, but it's generally just due to whatever is scheduled to be replaced in that given year.

Gotcha.

I I think I was kind of answering my own question when I was asking that T because I think I've had this conversation with you before, Director Route.

Uh, thank you for the clarification.

Um, and then the other question is uh around the office of the chief.

Is the additional money uh more around personnel or is it around um programmatic things, uh subscriptions?

Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

I'm sorry, just just to clarify, forgive me.

Uh so same page 1459, Office of the Chief uh from FY26 approved, it's four million, FY27 proposed, it's six million.

So I was just curious because when we see such large percentage changes, it's just kind of a flag.

Yeah, I'm I'm sorry.

Excuse my finance person.

Yeah, but but but just kind of going back to uh what the vice mayor was saying, some of some of those kind of budget outcomes are restructuring of the police department.

Uh and so some sometimes we have from the executive positions, right, that may be moved around or restructured or an expansion of some units based off of you know where we're at today and and how we need to kind of structure our leadership team.

So that's probably what you're seeing there.

Yeah, I would agree because then uh at the bottom of page two, you know, it goes from 12 to 28, which I think are some of the positions.

Um makes sense.

So again, I I'm asking this because you know, if anyone is looking at the budget and they see, you know, anything greater than 15%, and it's kind of like, hey, what is this?

Uh again with the outlays, it's basic things that happen, you know, purchasing of vehicles and equipment.

Um when it's with personnel, sometimes it's it's like, well, what are we doing there, right?

So it's good to know, like you said, there's some restructuring that you've been working on.

So then that helps to explain some of those changes.

Yes, sir.

Um, Chief, I had a few questions.

Um, first following up on two that um Councilman Aguary left with, I think it might be helpful.

I know um we're gonna hear from you in May with like the public safety plan.

I think um understanding what is the structure now, like given that there is a restructure, what does that look like?

And specifically, especially in the office of the chief, what is that staffing look like and how does that contribute to the public safety plan?

I think it'd be better for us to just kind of understand each of those positions, their function and their role.

The uh other follow-up question I had and director route, I don't know if this goes in the same memo as the memo that Councilman Chapman and Councilman Gary requested, but recognizing that the security contract is held across uh general services, I would just be curious sort of how we evaluated each of the different um buildings for um potential savings and what that looks like.

I'm asking because I think in a budget maybe two years ago, we ended up adding additional security for like libraries and things because they didn't have enough.

So just trying to understand where we're seeing savings, but then also where we might be doing additions as it relates to security.

You've got a holistic view of the security contracts.

Yes, yes, okay.

That would be great.

Um, Chief, I had a question.

So I recognize on this slide that we're looking at, that is for the auth, the officers that you are authorized to have.

What is our current like number of people right now in comparison, like how far away are we from the 313 number when you look at your total staff?

Um I would probably say we're probably, you know, roughly on average, maybe between uh 290 and 292.

Uh, but but in considering that uh there is uh the hard vacancies that we have, right?

And then there are the soft vacancies that we have, and those soft vacancies uh also represent a certain percentage of the workforce of people that are out on FMLA, uh, you know, family leave, sick leave, uh uh kind of baby leave.

Uh the other thing that I would say is uh, you know, we have people that are being called to the National Guard and military uh service.

Uh so we're trying to balance all of those specific areas.

And so when you see some of those hard vacancies, uh they can be from the command staff uh uh all the way down to the bottom uh of the organization.

And how easy is it for us to get kind of real-time numbers from other police departments?

And I'm asking because like this is helpful to see this ratio, but for me, the ratio is at the ideal, and nobody's at that every day.

And so kind of understanding what does that look like on the day-to-day on the street in comparison to other departments.

So I will I will just say this from a knowledge standpoint.

Um there are other organizations that are uh down in the region.

I don't know their most recent numbers, but I can probably speak to last year.

There are some organizations that are comparative to us in our size that are that are down probably about 100 officers, uh right.

And so uh there's kind of different mechanisms that are put in place to ensure uh our direct operational responsibility and answering calls for service.

Uh and we look at that on the on a weekly basis.

Uh so you know, there are there are larger organizations, right, that may not have that significant impact as relates to calls for service in certain service areas.

Uh, but there are some organizations over the last couple of years who are within this region that are probably close and comparable our size that have been down at least 100 police officers.

Okay.

I mean, I I think it would just be helpful as we explore this potential change and um reduction for us to continue to have updated information and like what does it actually look like on the numbers on the street?

And then the last question I had, and I don't know actually who to direct this to, um, but there was legislation moving in the General Assembly related to having um, I guess having positions other than police officers, that when somebody is in a mental health crisis, that they would be with a social work or behavioral health or somebody else to handle the TDO.

I guess my first question is do we know where that the status of that legislation is and if it passed?

And then my second question would be if it did pass, how would we be thinking about budgeting to be able to free up you know, police and be able to then pay those other um other trained professionals who are probably better in that crisis response to to support our TDOs?

Okay.

I I don't know the status of that legislation, so we'll have to find that out for you.

And and if it did pass, then we can ask the the second answer the second part.

That'd be great.

Yeah, because I I guess I wasn't sure if it would be like a DCHS budget or a police budget.

So it'd be helpful to understand.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman El Nubi.

On that point, um A Corp, how does the staffing look like?

So I th I think it's I think it's two part, right?

Um, I know that we have most recently there are there are three A Corp officers, right?

And then there are three support persons uh from DCHS.

Uh what I can tell you is is that we had a couple of uh those non-sworn persons uh just left not too long ago.

Uh no one was just recently hired.

Uh and so you know, we work with them to, you know, ensure that we're still having that as a core service delivery, but I uh I believe we're we may be down like one at this specific point in time.

And the FTE positions that we have, is it to cover around the clock or is still certain hours?

Uh it's it's it's certain hours.

It's not it's not 24 hours a day, but I can uh based off of those hours we look at uh when we have an increase, right?

Uh in some of those mental health calls, but it's not just call response, but it's also preventative work uh where they're making contact, right?

When there are there is not a specific call response.

So would would your assessment be that more would be needed during the hours that they're not available right now, or does the data show that they probably not needed uh they're they're working the hours right that supports the data.

Uh I don't think that they're working hours where the data is not supported by that.

Okay.

Um Mr.

Mender, can we get a budget memo on it, or how much would it cost to to to expand it uh to the hours that it doesn't cover right now and the data if we can get the data in the budget memo as well?

What does the data tell us?

Thank you.

Just to continue, um, and maybe uh the there was a pretty significant decline in the number of calls that a corp responded to from year to year from 596 in 2023 to 404 in 2024.

And so I guess I'm just curious.

I mean, maybe you know, sitting here, but I don't put you on the spot if we have any insight into what that reduction was.

I'd love to think mental health just improved citywide, but that's probably not that's probably overly optimistic.

So I'm just if if we can either add that into the question or if it's something APD can look at, you know, what they're attributing that drop to.

Um if it's a trend and it continues next year with the same staffing levels, that's great.

Maybe it means that we're cutting down on repeat calls because we're actually addressing things.

But um, is that you guys feel like you have a clear spending question?

I just think it's two part, right?

We look at call response, but we also uh have to also look at preventative, right?

And and so they work in both capacities.

I think on a wider scale, uh, when you look at the the significant like load that it takes for officers to sit on CDOs, uh that doesn't necessarily um speak to uh just the cost for service, but also accessibility that takes them off the street.

Uh so you know, are there uh mental health providers in the area, right?

Uh that they can take them to.

And you know, we've known by experience that that has decreased in the area, which takes them out of service for a longer out hours.

So going back to the mayor's point, uh there has been legislation that is put forth.

I'm not sure if that has been as passed or not.

Uh, but we certainly would have to look at the expansion of spolls uh in the city to free up officers to answer additional costs for service will be more proactive.

Uh and so I think the other side of that is uh, you know, they're working in that capacity, but there's preventative work, just not call response uh as well.

But that's something we can look into to identify if there's any more different significant trends.

I guess um what I would want to I I appreciate what you're sharing.

I guess what I would want to understand then is how can we be clear on what specific preventative work is happening that is leading to that drop?

Because to me, I guess what you guys would be getting at is if there are things we can fund on the front end so that nobody's in this situation on the back end, then that would be where we would.

So I don't know if there's specific programs that the police department's partnering with, if there are other programs across the agency, but somehow if we can pull that information on like what are the things that are happening that are driving the decrease.

Um, and if we have any data on what those cost, that would be helpful.

Understood.

Are there any additional uh councilman Green?

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, Chief, I know it's hard to keep people at uh in the crossing guard, the school crossing guard position.

Do you know how many vacancies we currently have in that position?

And in those vacant positions, do we still have police officers covering those routes?

So I don't I don't have the full vacancies of our crossing guard positions, but I I can tell you that the challenge has been um, you know, work for two hours in the morning, then work for two hours in the evening.

Um, you know, and then I think that the the population age of of people that work in that area uh are kind of not our younger population, or actually uh tenured employees like that that um have been working with young people, right, in the city and in the community.

Uh we do have to supplement that at times.

Uh, but but the challenge has been the minimal amount of hours uh working that is not a full-time job.

Could I get that information?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

I guess um something that may so um I'm thinking, Councilman Green, I know in past councils we've asked several questions around kind of what could we do, what creative things either to provide additional hours or change the contract.

Um I I guess I'd love to see like has anything been implemented from those recommendations that came through previously.

Madam Mayor, um Jan Lambert, deputy city manager, I do want to add that uh we do have a contract that provides support on the crossing guard side.

So in addition to the staff, we have a contractor that is also helping us make sure that we actually have all of our crossing guard posts filled.

Okay.

And so then I guess if I'm interpreting it right, the the argument is we may not be focused on increasing hours or changing the structure because we're using a contract.

Have we done any analysis as to whether or not like what the cost difference is between working with the staff we have and increasing their hours versus continuing to expand the contract?

We have not dug deep into that.

We um we have had a challenge over the years hiring crossing guards because of the reasons that the chief noted the contractor, uh the contract has enabled us to actually keep all the posts filled, which has been really important to us and to ACPS and to the parents as well.

But I I do agree we can certainly take a deeper dive into that data to make sure that we're sort of finding the right balance.

Yeah, I mean, I would love to add that to um councilwoman Green's memo.

And if we can't get all, I mean, if we can't do that full analysis and something that maybe shows like the trends in terms of the cost of the contract, and I don't know how long it's been in place, but it how much is it growing um over and over year over year?

That's what I'm trying to say.

So, Councilmember Green, we have 27 positions or 14 are currently vacant uh that are supported by contracting similar reporting, of course.

So 14 are vacant that are supported by the contract.

Okay, so yeah, I think understanding this in the larger contract of like even the contract isn't helping us keep it filled.

And this is going to be a need that we're always going to need in our community.

And so what white we be able to do here?

Uh Councilman Gary.

Uh one question for me.

Um, we had a significant retirement this year with Officer Benny Evans leaving.

So I was wondering if you could just make any comments around uh the outreach team and what that's gonna look like.

So right now the position, uh we're working toward a more accountable preventative model, right, with our crime prevention officers uh and kind of like their background, especially more so based off of a geographical area.

Uh so Benny Evans was a part of that unit beforehand.

He kind of had dual role and responsibilities.

Uh and so we're trying to work with updated training in that way uh through more of a geographical concept.

And what I mean by that is is that we would have uh a crime prevention officer per se overlaid with that skill set assigned to different areas of the city versus one person being accountable for the entire city.

Uh and then uh I know that there are also some uh areas that we're working with the Department of Health and Human Services, right?

Uh to try to add some supplemental uh thought to that.

So we're we're working through transition on that, but we do have people in organization that have the skill set to support it.

Uh, but Benny was a part of that was kind of a collateral assignment for you.

Um you don't have to answer right now, but if you get back to us with uh kind of the sectors that you're thinking about, um, just to know how many people will kind of be a part of this group and then who those officers might be, so that we can introduce ourselves and potentially help uh with some of the um uh uh engagement and you know getting another community and everything.

Yes, sir.

Okay, are there any final questions for police?

Okay, thank you, Chief.

Next, we have emergency and customer communications deck, Madam Mayor.

Members of the council.

Um, so DEC, um uh department of emergency customer communications for those who don't know.

Um we're we're looking at three um areas.

Uh hiring bonuses, and I'll tell you why.

Um, in January, just this January, we lost um three FTEs to tech companies.

They seem to be the new people that are taking uh call takers and dispatches from communication centers.

And we just got a resignation this morning.

That'll be our fourth one.

And they're paying more.

Uh they're offering more exciting things to do.

The other area is uh training, training um pay increase, and then we have a vacant position elimination.

So I will take any questions.

I guess a follow um a follow-up question that I would have.

While I recognize we're never going to be able to compete with the tech sector, is 10,000 is that competitive or comparable to how other jurisdictions are trying to um my expert.

Yeah, recruit and retain staff here.

Hi, Mayor.

Um Martin Alexander, assistant director over at DEC.

Um, so it is comparable.

The hiring bonus is considered a hiring and retention bonus.

So they'll start off, it'll be 2500 for each new hire.

It'll start off with like a thousand dollars for their first from their hiring, but then they have incremental milestones that they must reach through their second year um of employment.

So that just retains them for at least two years.

Is there any bonus or program focused on keeping the staff who are here?

Currently, um, no, but we do have collective bargaining that does have some uh negotiations that have been met for I think longevity bonus for those individuals.

Um, are there other um jurisdictions that currently do the longevity bonus?

Um I don't know about a longevity bonus, but the hiring bonus, yes.

Uh DC and Fairfax is 2500, similar to what we have, and then Montgomery County is $5,000.

I I mean I would be curious just to find out any data on if other jurisdictions do a longevity bonus, and if so, how much?

Are there additional questions?

Thanks, very bagley.

Um, to the point of trying to find other alternative retention tools.

I'm curious if any members of your department over time have progressed into other paths within our city structure within than in are there other ways we could find to, you know, if they have an interest.

Because doing what they do, they learn so much about everything the city does and how to direct people.

So I'm just curious, like, have you had past members of your organization progress into other departments?

And might there be other opportunities to create pathways for promotion or I can't tell what I said.

Actually, we're taking people from other departments.

Uh this one is has been my jam.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

So um uh I don't know that we have had lost maybe one.

Yeah, one or two, um, two other departments, just because we have 311 housed in deck, other apartments.

Um, we have lost two, um, but gained gain one of them back.

And I must add to um in within a department, we have a career ladder.

So coming in as an entry-level call taker, you do have the need to get promoted within due to training.

That's why the training pay increase is very important because we don't have a lot of CTOs, which is certified training officers, um, because the pay was a little bit lower when we did a comparison across the region.

Um, but that training pay actually incentivize staff to want to be a training officer so we can get more individuals in the career ladder all the way up to supervisor level.

I appreciate that.

I think um it's I mean, I guess it's good to hear people want to come in at the same time.

Do you what is in other ways to be competitive?

I'm curious how your remote work policy is that possible given the nature of work.

I assume everybody went remote during the pandemic, but now there is maybe limitations on that.

Are we competitive in that way?

Um we are competitive.

Um, we have our remote program that also promotes individuals that has left.

Um, you can have a spouse that's in the military that had to move out of state.

Um, if you left in good standing within deck, we are um having those individuals work out of state with our remote equipment.

Um we do have remote equipment also within the office um that we can give at least one or two individuals that remote capability for like a month at a time.

Um we also have our uh operations managers that have that ability because when an emergency happens, you can't expect everyone to get into the city at the same time.

So they're able to dial in and just uh get on a call.

So we we we are utilizing the equipment.

Um technology changes can increase that, but we are utilizing that.

Um and we're known in the nation for having that remote capability.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

And I should I see my colleagues can't, but I realized I should have asked this in the beginning.

What is the total staff for the department?

Total FTE's account is 62.5.

Thank you.

Councilman Gary.

Uh Dr.

Gordon, always good to see you and get their view as well.

Um, in terms of technology software and systems, how are we doing?

And I know we said that we're kind of a leader in the country with that, but you know, it's always trying to keep up pace and leaps and bounds technology is taking.

Um, how are we feeling there?

Are there some improvements we could be looking at?

Well, we um we need to improve.

We're falling behind.

Uh we are trying to uh work with Arlington now on a phone system.

And one of those things will increase our remote program.

That would help us with um with staffing.

Um remote program, we're our equipment is just it's old.

And so the industry has gone beyond us and we need to catch up.

Um, can we get a budget memo to see what it would take to can we do do this in kind of installments, maybe one piece of equipment, second piece of equipment, software, whatever it might be, because I don't know what it is.

So I'd like to see what it is.

Um because yeah, I want to make sure that we we have similar issues with other call centers um that we have and trying to operate with the city, and it doesn't make sense if we're using telephones from you know the 1960s.

Uh, might as well have a rotary phone.

Um so yeah, definitely want to take a look at that.

Yes.

And we will include in that the funding that we have in the CIP for both 911 and CAD systems.

So the money that we are we have identified for that, but we'll give you a more thorough answer.

Yeah, and we have identified some grants that we're um pursuing as well, which we look at.

With one of them, all right.

Um, and then the other question I had was around language and how we're doing with language when we're getting calls in the different languages, what's response like?

What's response like?

Are people getting hanging up?

Are we able to communicate with them?

What does that look like?

How's it going?

Okay.

So we're going, we're doing fine.

Um we have not even just one.

We have two companies that we work with.

So we have a primary and a secondary.

So there's a time if the language line is not answering, it switches over to another um language line.

So we are competitive as far as making sure we and we're answering a lot of calls.

We don't have um multiple hang-ups.

No, I doubt.

Um, but yeah.

Do we have submetrics on this?

You don't have to provide them right now.

But I can get them for you as far as the number of languages, the number of calls.

Yeah, we can get that information.

Yeah, because I can't recall if we did this once a year or I've just asked for this offhand, but um I would maybe every two years, you know, just to kind of re-up and just see where we are and how's it going.

So all right, appreciate it.

Thank you.

Councilman Green.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Thank you both for being here.

It's good to see you.

I have a question about the elimination of the HR position.

How many HR positions does that leave you?

Or who does?

How does how does the HR, you know, how does that department how's that makeup in in your department?

So there's one HR position in the department.

Um, but there is also an oversight uh position.

Um so the elimination of this position, we would just go ahead and um utilize other staff to take up the brunt of the work.

So we are um when we do have staff, we do train like our operations managers.

They do cycle in um and do HR functions.

So we would just utilize that.

They're trained, they are knowledgeable.

We'll just go ahead and utilize that um to make sure the brunt of the work is being done.

It's not gonna stop the work being done.

Um we'll still get be able to handle it.

Okay, thank you.

I just had one um follow-up question on the technology memo.

I guess I'd be curious for a breakdown of like the different types of technology you you need, but also I know we're asking you to do more.

I'm thinking as a council, we've asked, like, we want tracking on you know the number of calls we get related to ice or the number of calls we get related on specific issues.

So it's both a question of like what technology do we have, and then what technology do we need to be a system that can track and pull the data to help us be more responsive.

We'll be honored to answer that.

Looking forward to it.

Any uh further questions.

Okay, thank you, Director Gordon.

Our next department is the juvenile and domestic relations district court.

Evening.

Oh, see.

Good evening.

I'm Sean Sherlock, I'm the chief judge of the juvenile domestic relations district court in Alexandria.

I was gonna say, I don't know if I should say like your honor.

I'm not really sure how to do that.

Um It is.

Yes, it is.

I'm gonna start with Vice Mayor Bagley.

Um, thanks for joining us tonight.

Uh I was curious about technology in your courtroom.

And if you could just speak a little bit to to what extent you have any and to what extent technology might facilitate the procedures there.

Yeah, thank you, Viceman Bagley.

I'm happy to talk about that.

Um the technology in our court is pretty dated, I'll tell you.

Um, you know, especially in respect to or in comparison to what jurisdictions around here have.

Um you know, it affects us in a lot of ways.

You know, our ability to have people appear by remote video, for example, um, is very, very limited.

Um you know, we have I mean one phone per courtroom where people can call in.

Um, if we have numerous people on hold waiting to appear by phone in court, the phone stops ringing.

We only have a limited number of phone lines.

Um, you know, so we're actively trying to make improvements in those areas.

Um our court has been accepted into a pilot program for a virtual court pilot program through um the office of the executive secretary in Richmond.

I'm going to training um next month or later this month rather on that.

And um, we're starting to get some equipment delivered for that.

So televisions, microphones.

Um, I still don't quite know how exactly that's gonna work.

Um but you know, the more technology we have, the the more responsive we can be.

It improves our access to justice.

Um, for a lot of reasons, people um may not be able to get it to court in person, but we can conduct that hearing, having them remote.

You know, the technology is there during COVID.

Um, a lot of courts had to grapple with that and find ways you know, to utilize those tools and and learned a lot of lessons and implemented a lot of things.

I'd like to see our court really get into the the 21st century with a lot of those things.

That's a top priority of mine.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No, I know I appreciate that.

And um, I'm glad you're here tonight to speak to that.

Um, if if you could, if you could collaborate with our management and budget office on some some more information about what you're already receiving through that program and what you would anticipate the cost and needs would be to either supplement it or increase its effectiveness.

Um, I do think especially at the JDR level with the issues you're dealing with, being able to facilitate remote participation could be really impactful.

So if you guys, if you could help provide sort of some some data points for us on that, I'd appreciate it.

I would be honored to.

Um, I don't know if this is a question for you or maybe it's later for the juvenile detention center.

But I guess I would be curious if we're increasing your capacity.

Is there capacity and technology that then is also needed um in the detention center in order for people to be able to um communicate or to leverage those opportunities as well.

Yeah, I I think there is room for improvement there.

Um we one way we utilize technology uh remote hearings um very commonly is for juveniles to appear in court before a judge, but them not have to be transported from the place that they are.

So obviously that applies to our detention center.

Oftentimes, if a juvenile is arrested, consider arrested, they're in the detention center, they've not been there long.

Um, so our procedure for those initial hearings is to have them appear remotely, which is the best thing for a number of reasons.

Um, not to have to put that juvenile in handcuffs, put them in a cruiser, transport them.

It's very disruptive at a pretty, you know, often a crisis time in their life.

Um, there's one room at the detention center that that's used for.

Again, we share that detention center with Arlington County.

Um, there have been plenty of times where our hearings, you know, and it's unpredictable how many hearings we may have, how long they may take, um, where our dockets are conflicting with Arlington County stockets and the detention center simply doesn't have another option for that.

That room is also right off a hallway.

There's plenty of times where the other business in the detention center um is bleeding into that room.

It's noisy, it's disruptive.

Um, you know, the the room is not set up in such a way to be distraction-free for the juveniles.

I had a kid in court the other day who just was playing with the remote and doing other things.

And you know, my ability to um kind of affect that is very limited, right?

Um, you know, we work with what we have and people in the system really we do a lot with a little in a lot of ways.

But um, we also have journals who are in placements, you know, all throughout the commonwealth and either other places.

You know, I can do a WebEx if I can have someone on the other end with an email and a secure place.

A lot of this is very at ad hoc for us for for some, and by nature it always will be, you know.

Um, but you know, shelter care is another thing where I'd like to see us be able to have um the the juveniles do more remote appearances for for the hearings where it's appropriate.

There's plenty of of uh um hearings where I need the juvenile there so they can be with their lawyer, they can be in a room with their family members.

There's benefit to that.

But you know, we we're a court that deals with so much, we need flexibility, and the technology is really empowers us to do a lot of things smarter, you know, um more trauma-informed.

That's very important.

Um, so hopefully that's an answer.

That's helpful.

I feel bad, Director Raoul.

I feel like I add a page to everybody else's memo.

That's the way my brain thinks.

Um, I guess then what I would be curious is both to Vice Bagley's point about the type of technology that's needed in the actual court.

But the most important thing is making sure that those um the individuals are able to use it and have the greatest access to justice.

So then understanding what type of technology would then be needed in both shelter care and the juvenile detention center.

And for I guess for the juvenile detention center, it's both a question of what's needed, but also how do you make the room actually appropriate.

I hearing what you mentioned about sound, I'm thinking there's privacy concerns and other things that we should be um thinking through.

Yeah.

Are there additional questions for uh councilman Agiri and then councilman Alnube?

Uh thank you for being here tonight.

Uh I don't want my question to be too redundant.

Um glad to hear that you're you know part of the pilot.

Uh, I don't want to forget about our friends at the state level and uh what they could do.

So I was wondering if there's any effort statewide uh between the juvenile courts to try and get additional funding, not just for technology for other items that you might need, and then uh kind of a follow-up to that.

I know our the session is is pretty much wrapping up now, but if there are things that we could partner on in terms of legislation or helping to lobby uh Richmond, I think that's something that we'd be happy to do because uh any additional state benefit that you receive is also beneficial to the city overall.

Absolutely.

Um yeah, you know, we do we get a ton of support um from Richmond, the office of executive secretary.

This pilot program is rolled out for 13 jurisdictions.

It's it's it's very new.

I don't know enough about it yet.

I'll know more after I go to the training and we implement the equipment councilman.

Um so I'll be in a better position, I think, to answer that.

Um yeah, in terms of the legislation, you know, um, I can't really speak to that.

I don't think it, you know, um, there's a lot, I think of bills that will affect the the JDR court.

Um, you know, as a judge, I'm subject to the canons, and I don't think I could really speak to you know, for against legislation that's pending, but yeah, ask me after July 1st.

Um, because I I do anticipate that there's some bills that will probably um have a big impact on us, maybe even expand the subject matter jurisdiction of the JDR court.

We did about 4,100 cases last year.

I anticipate that's gonna go up a good bit because of some legislation changes, and obviously the more cases we have, the the more we're gonna need to handle that.

Thank you so much, Pennsylvania for July.

Very good.

We will.

July 1st to be exact.

Yes, yeah.

Uh councilman on be.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, is there any does your court get any funding from the state?

And if so, what is the split between the state and the city and what determines that?

Uh yes, sir.

Um, the vast majority of our budget is from the state.

Um, the vast, vast majority of it.

And I apologize, I don't have the the percentage here in front of me.

I'd be happy to get that for you.

But for example, you know, we have seven full-time clerks.

Um, they get a stipend uh from the city, but um the bulk of their salary, certainly my entire salary is all is all state funded.

That's what I thought, because looking at how much money the city's given your courts, like very small.

Yeah, but that's um but I'm trying to understand like what formula or what um um determines the split between uh the city and the state.

Um, but I appreciate it.

Yes, sir.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much.

Our next uh office is the Office of the Independent Policing Auditor.

Okay.

All right, good evening, y'all.

And uh good evening to members of the public and as well as the people joining us online.

I'm Amaratu Kumara.

I'm the director of the Office of the Independent Policing Auditor.

I um I have a just I'll briefly address that we met our 1% uh reduction at uh $6200 just over.

Uh there were no major uh budget impacts.

Um that's straight out of our operational budget.

Um looking ahead, the biggest changes to our budget from this year is our um outside council budget um for the board as it sort of comes into full launch um with its review, including the upcoming public hearing on the in-custody death, and then um the addition of our um case management system, IE Pro.

Uh Councilwoman Green.

Thank you, Director Kramara.

Good to have you here.

Um, you have a vacant position, your O position um in your department.

Can you give me a status update on that?

Yes.

Uh so that that remains vacant.

We are working to through the hiring process, meaning we're coming up with our job description, looking at other jurisdictions to sort of compare pay salary, things like that.

Um, but it is something that we are prioritizing to bring someone on to help um with the investigation piece.

So um what's the timeline?

Um, my goal.

My goal is to bring someone on by the end of the summer, but that would need to be a discussion um with uh HR as to their hiring timeline.

Okay, I know um previously you've spoken to the council about the need for support related to community engagement and making sure um that you have a deeper presence in the community, but also that more members of the community know their rights.

Can you speak to potential, I guess, staffing or needs related to community outreach?

Yes.

Um, so a part of our reduction uh submission, we also submitted a supplemental request for a community liaison position.

That position was to be funded uh just under $30,000 at 296 29600.

Um that role was to really support, as you said, our consistency in the community, um, build our relationship building and our presence.

Um we submitted that supplemental request um with the reduction offset proposal to show that our office could incur that uh cost internally um and uh fully self-fund the position.

Uh however, that proposal was not approved.

And we we did ask uh Catherine Lewis our budget liaison why it was not approved, but we we did not get an answer.

Um so we still wait on that.

So um I think the answer to the question is there are a lot of requests that we received from a lot of departments.

You've heard from the schools, there are a lot of needs that we know exist, and we have not been able to fund every single one of them in the 2.2% um revenue growth that we received.

So um, yeah, this is one of many examples that you're gonna hear about over the next you know, four work sessions of things that we would like to do that we can't do at all.

Is it typical though for a department to say like we'll take a reduction in our budget to like we'll use our existing budget to cover it and it still not be funded?

Yeah, I can answer that.

Yeah, that yes, that is normal.

And just to highlight the dollars allocated to individual budgets isn't necessarily just for that department.

I mean, it's intended to be used for that department, but any type of savings as well as cost overruns are typically related to how we have to manage the cash flow throughout multiple budgets.

So um it's it would not be unusual.

I think in this case, it's not been unusual for this budget to have uh requests that perhaps were made to fund a new position or fund something with a cut to something else.

Um sometimes we would take that cut but not add the position or add the uh um the additional uh resource.

Uh and that's not that unusual.

I don't remember how often we did that.

Well, that was that was our guidance to the departments this year's in addition to the one percent reduction that we asked everybody to prepare.

Um if they were going to adapt asked for additional funding, we asked that they also identify reductions beyond the 1% equal to the amount that they're asking for.

So that's consistent with the the policy um that all department departments were asked to follow.

We didn't in every case take that.

And it's you know, the city manager mentioned some cases we took the reduction, didn't add the supplemental, in some cases we just did not do that trade-off.

And what it was this a part-time or a full-time position.

This was a part-time position to help us with our community outreach, um, help us with the public education piece, but really it's what the large city events as well.

Pride, Juneteenth.

Um, we were just at the women's health summit, and a lot of those events um require us to extensive setup and then um consistent communication with community members that are coming by uh throughout, and then taking down large canopies, putting away large tables, and honestly, that has been left to one staff member, and that is that is me.

Um I was just at the women's health summit.

I was out at uh Juneteenth.

And sometimes we do have board members come out and set and sign up, but they can't always stay.

And when they do come, they can't help with setup.

And so it it has been very burdensome, like burdensome on on staff.

And so this is a request that we do plan to renew and and hope that it'll be approved and supported.

Can we just get a straight memo on the cost?

Like, what's the cost of the part-time position?

It is oh here, yes.

Oh, no, I was gonna say, I is it it um we got a list of supplementals, didn't we, Director Rao?

I don't know if that's uh no, you all received a uh memo on the reduction options that were provided that were not taken.

And you received all of the supplementals that were funded in the budget.

Okay, as a part of the handout or this the supplementals and reductions and fee adjustments that were actually in the budget.

Gotcha.

Then yeah, then Madam Mayor, then yes to what you're about to say.

We'll take a memo on the cost of this position.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Bagley.

Um along those lines, uh I'm mindful that it can be challenging to hire part-time positions, you know, that they don't have benefits.

And so I'm curious if there were other requests for other part-time positions that might align skill set-wise, not in your office, you know, but does the race office, does the police department are there other places where a part-time position focused on engagement or focused on other um where the skill set potentially might align and we could have a better time advertising and retaining and attracting talent for that position.

So I I don't know how complicated that analysis might be, but I guess if there are supplementals that weren't funded that were for part-time positions, if there's a Frankenstein's version of a of a full-time job that might attract somebody and sort of address two problems.

Um I think we we can certainly do that.

I I would highlight that a lot of our events uh are staffed by a combination of full-time staff, part-time staff, as well as volunteers and commission members, things like that.

Um, it really does take a broad, especially with the amount of events and things like that that we do.

Um good example would be community cookouts.

You'll see staff, you'll see volunteers, you'll see a mix of different people there.

Um, I'm not suggesting this isn't a uh excellent idea.

It's just a question of where it fits in the priority.

Yeah.

And I think that this council, I mean, I think this is their second or third time before us, and each time we've said that the number one goal we have for this department is to be more visible in the community.

So while I know that you provided examples of events, and so maybe the feedback has focused on events.

I don't know that we view that as necessarily the primary role of this position, but that there is a larger goal that we're trying to achieve here.

Right.

And uh I mean, this position would also help us just establish establish um information sessions, community partners.

I mean, we rely on press releases to get the word out there, but obviously that's not enough.

We need to have community partners, and so that's what really this position is for is to establish that relationship building that we need to move forward.

Yeah, thank you.

Other questions?

I'm sorry, go ahead, Director.

I was just gonna say the cost is $30,000.

$29,640.

Um the beginning of your statement, you referenced um outside council costs.

And I just um I I understand there's a budget of roughly $5,000, I think, in your office for outside council cost.

Are you finding in this year that we have our first hearing that we're preparing for?

Is that a is it a good estimate?

Do we need to consider, you know, whether that number might need to change?

Yes.

So there is a $5,000 uh cap on our outside count council budget.

Um I will say that this year we we will likely exceed it because of um we're we're still in the opening stages of implementation.

So this is the board's first public hearing.

We're establishing uh rules and procedures, um, things like that that we're working with our city attorney's office with be as they advise all uh boards and commissions.

Um, but they those are documents that need to be reviewed by outside council.

So um in the event that there are any complications, delays, um, additional circumstances that we need time with outside council.

Um, should we exceed, should we need to exceed that $5,000, council will be notified and we will seek your approval before uh moving forward.

Okay, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Our next department is the sheriff's office.

Um while the sheriff's coming up, I'll go back to the um previous question about the courts and the um funding for their.

We provide a 15% supplement to the um to the court.

So there's seven employees there.

What you see in the budget is only that 15% that we provide to them.

The state funding that they receive for their base salaries is not on the city's books.

So what you're seeing in the budget document is going to be that 15% uh subsidy plus um the some of the non-personnel funding that's in there.

Vice Mayor Bagley.

So you opened you up, you you open it back up, unfortunately.

So I I think what I was getting at a little bit, and maybe you can help clarify is I was aware that the state funding of that office is much more substantial than some of the others, but each locality has like the physical the responsibility of sort of the physical environment or a greater responsibility for sort of the physical environment of the building and the technology.

And so that's I appreciate the clarification.

But I want to non-personnel proposal.

That's that not okay.

So that's what I was trying to drill down into is I uh you know, the um state you know provides much of that budget, but we really are responsible for the experience in the courtroom locally.

That's correct.

Okay, thank you.

And that was 30, 32,000.

Uh good evening, mayor, members of council, um the sheriff, Sean Casey, responsible for the security and safety of our detention center, courthouse, service of civil process, and also we do assist with general public safety when called upon to by the police department, or if we need to, um, we will help.

And we uh overall this budget cycle, it was a challenging budget cycle.

We know that there's a lot of challenges with this budget overall, and we spent a lot of time coming through our budget to ensure that uh the reductions that we submitted and that eventually we landed on wouldn't compromise our legally and constitutionally mandated things that we have to do at the sheriff's office, which is managing the jail, making sure the inmates are safe, keeping the courthouse secure in the service of civil process.

Uh so uh we spent a lot of time uh with OMB, uh with the city manager's office, uh, and we were able to land on one vacant uh deputy sheriff position, uh being uh one of our reductions being our reduction.

Um and you know, we feel confident we'll still be able to provide the same level of service that we're providing now.

Um we do have seven deputy sheriff vacancies right now.

Uh, we're aiming to fill those in the next uh several months.

Um and however, if we're uh we get to the point where we are in a position where we are fully staffed, um, you know, Jan has committed to continuing the conversation about how we make sure that staffing continues to examine if that reduction is is hurting us, right?

If it's not, uh, we're not able to meet our responsibilities, we'll reevaluate.

But uh, we've had a good conversation.

I appreciate the time they've spent with me to try to find reductions and efficiencies in our budget.

Uh, but I can tell you that every dollar that we're spending is going towards our constitutionally legally mandated uh responsibilities at the sheriff's office.

Okay, I'll open it up for questions.

Councilman O'Nubi.

Thank you, uh Sheriff Casey.

Um page 14.7.

It seems to me that the detention center security went up by five FTEs.

Is that correct?

Yes.

So uh we did a realignment um within the sheriff's office uh early this year to better align the different sections, divisions, units, and bureaus uh within the proper bureau that they belong in, right?

So we wanted to accompass all direct services that are directly detention center support into one bureau.

Uh so we did that.

Uh we also combined the judicial services and administrative uh services bureau into one bureau.

Um, and then we have the office of the uh uh under sheriff, and they handle the um investigations, policy and oversight section, fiscal, and our public information officer.

Um so we did some reorganization.

We're still working with OMB to kind of better align um the budget and the budget documents and our orgs with that reorganization.

So it's a work in progress.

That's why you see a little bit of shifting and moving there.

Thank you.

That's helpful.

Uh my second question is um how much does it cost to house an inmate per year in Alexandria?

And how much of that is coming from the city and how much from the state.

Yes, so the federal government.

So the uh the state mandates that we do a jail cost report every year and we report that to the state.

And so they have a pretty in-depth formula that they have us use to determine what resources and and what staffing and non-personnel, personnel, uh overhead costs go into running and operating the jail.

So um it's important when you look at this document that we produce, uh, the way that the state does it is they look at the number, right?

Once we put all those numbers in that I just discussed, um, you get you get a total number of total number of how much it costs to operate the detention center.

So in FY25, our draft report, because it hasn't been officially published yet, the one we submitted to the state.

Um, sorry, that's AFY 24, FY25.

FY25.

Yeah, that's uh 31 million dollars, 31 uh million dollars, 700 uh thousand is how much approximately it costs to run the detention center.

Now, the way the state does it is they divide it by the number of inmates that were currently in the detention center over that year time span.

So what the state is saying is that that would cost uh it was in 20 fiscal year 2025, it costs 332 dollars to house an inmate.

Now, what's a little interesting about that formula is that the number of inmates go up, the cost per inmate goes down.

So it kind of indicates that we spend less on an inmate if there's more inmates, which isn't really accurate.

So when I look at that number, what I like to do is divide it by our rated capacity, and that capacity is determined through the Department of Corrections.

Um that's 340.

So we have 340 cells where we can house people for uh in a permanent way inside the detention center.

And so when you look at that, because that's really what is being funded, right?

So we can operate a detention center at 340 uh inmates if we need to.

Um so you're looking at that number for FY25, it's 255 in a day.

What?

Per day, yes, uh for an inmate.

Um, which is about the same as it was for FY24 as well.

Uh so any questions about that?

Can I can I ask a quick follow-up?

When was the last time we had 340 inmates?

That was pre-COVID.

Uh we we almost got to it a little bit when we came out of COVID, but consistently it was pre-COVID.

Okay.

Um, before we go to the next, I I guess I want to spend some time here and understand more.

Then if we haven't reached those numbers in such a long time, what is the rationale for continuing to use that as the denominator?

Uh well, the situation is this the way that it we, you know, when looking at how we staff the jail and how the jail is occupied by the inmates inside of it, a lot of things that determine that.

There's the physical plan of the jail, right?

There's what we call full service cells that can house anybody, right?

Whether they're the maximum security inmate or a minimum security inmate, because they have a food slot, they have a locking door, they have a toilet and sink inside of it.

Uh, and then we have some cells that can't do that, that don't have locking doors, don't have toilets and sinks inside.

It's more dormitory style living, and those are for minimum security inmates only.

So we have about 58 of those cells uh in the jail.

And then we have some cells that don't have food slots, and so it depends on where we're housing people.

So ultimately, the way it breaks down currently in the jail, the way we have people housed in different housing units, uh reflects that every housing unit for the most part is being occupied and being used by a certain number of inmates.

You know, for example, in our general population housing unit, there's 48 cells in those units.

All 48 are a little bit over are being occupied.

When we were at that 340 number, that number was higher.

It was like 60 or 70 or even 80 because they were being double bunked.

We might have had space in other cells to put them, but their security and their classification, we couldn't put them there because of their charges, their their incarceration history, and ultimately uh what uh our classification status indicates the safest place to put them is.

So uh and looking at the jail and operating the jail, um, you know, really when the number that we've looked at and that we've analyzed to to where we could both we could bring down our rated capacity, we'd have to have 150 inmates or less.

Um that's where we could potentially see a difference in actually moving and closing housing units and potentially moving inmates around.

Uh, I will say there is the first floor project that's currently under about to be underway um that funding was put forth many years ago for.

We now have a contractor who's undertaking that project to retrofit many of those cells that don't have sinks, don't have toilets, don't have locking doors.

So there's potential that we'll be able to better utilize the space that we have there that which could potentially result in efficiencies.

I also say that we did undertake uh a pretty big um jail staffing study with the National Institutes of Corrections um uh last year.

And it goes into detail as to why we need the staff that we need at the different posts throughout the jail.

Um, and it's it's pretty comprehensive uh and it's pretty um uh informative about how the jail is staffed and why it's staffed the way that it is.

I guess um my question was maybe more though on just the calculations itself.

I I imagine that the state recognizes that every jail in Virginia is not structured the same and all have different uniqueness, but for some reason when they're doing their reporting and study, they're still dividing it by, if I understand correctly, they're still dividing it by number of inmates, but we're doing it by potential capacity.

So I guess I'm trying to understand.

Just to give you context.

That's all, just to give you context, because I guess what I'm trying to say is that you know, um, we because we could hold 340, but we only have 255.

The idea would be well, why do we we don't need that space?

Let's shut it down and move staffing and reduce.

We can't do that, is what I'm trying to say because of the classification and type of inmate that we have the housing units that we've available to us need to be occupied, they need to be staffed a certain way.

And as a result, we're not able to shrink our rate of capacity to match how many inmates are actually in the facility.

So, what I'm saying to you all is that the way that it's funded currently and the way that we're being funded, that if we were to go up to 340 inmates, we would be able to manage that given the capacity that we have in the jail now, given the funding that we have.

Okay, but beyond staffing, what other factors are in that calculation?

Um, there's a bunch.

Uh there's the food contract, the medical contract, um, there's transportation of inmates back and forth.

Um, there is the uh different um overhead costs that the city incurs um through utilities and just overhead costs in general from other city departments that are assisting with the operation of the sheriff's office.

Um, so yeah, all those different calculations go in there, and we're happy to share the report with you all and you can take a look at it.

Um FY24 report is public, FY25 hasn't come out yet.

Okay.

Um, but happy to, you know, provide that to you all.

Um, if you could circulate the FY24, and I'll go back to my colleague because I I guess what I'm trying to understand is if we are providing funding based on 340, I can hear the staffing concerns, but that also tells me that we're not using food for 340, we're not using transportation for 340.

So I just want to understand that breakdown.

Yeah, I mean, if if if 20 people go to court in one day, we're we're taking, you know, we only have like two cord bands, so we're taking them in two cord vans.

If we have 40, there's two cord vans, and the people are coming back.

So those folks are assigned to the courthouse, and they're the ones who how much are they transporting back and forth?

How much time are we using for them?

You know, is the is the question.

Um, how what percentage of their salary is transporting people back and forth from court?

You know, that's how they're looking at that, or medical appointments, things along those lines.

Okay.

Uh Councilman.

Thank you, Madam Mayer.

I mean, uh, I'm gonna ask all of them.

Oh, go ahead.

Oh, back in there, back in.

Um, just while we're talking um numbers, uh, can you give a gender breakdown?

Because and then I might have a follow up.

Oh, for inmates.

Uh it's you, I think right now we have 15 female inmates, is usually between 10 and 20.

The rest are male.

Okay.

And is there a similar challenge in that there are bearing classifications amongst those 20 women?

Yes, there is.

Yeah.

Um is that number pretty consistent?

I mean, are we wildly low at the moment or it's pretty consistent.

Pretty consistent.

Okay.

Um, and I you know, everything the mayor and and my and my colleague were just sort of breaking down, talking about how going up to 340 wouldn't require more funds, but also you couldn't really function with fewer funds until you got all the way down to um uh uh 150.

Correct.

What I've what I'm trying to needle out a little farther, though, is I assume there is an entirely different structure built around housing female inmates.

And to what extent are there separate costs?

Um, because we're not just talking about, you know, what was the number 250?

We're really talking about 230 men and 20 women.

Correct.

So can you speak it all to uh are you able to give any any cost discussion or or any staffing discussion that is sort of created by that 20 person unit?

Um no, I there really isn't a difference in cost to house a female inmate versus a male inmate.

The challenge that we have that you mentioned is that we can't put all 20 females or 15 females together.

There we usually have to divide it up in two units.

You know, right now they're you know, um, so it's hard because or if they're in the same unit, we have to do the best we can to put those who are in high classifications, they remain in their cells for a long period of time.

Others get able to get out more, and that's complicated.

So we usually like to do two units if we can.

But like, for example, those two units house uh, you know, have uh 22 cells given those two units, right?

But we have 15 female inmates, so we have seven and seven, but we can't really use those other cells because who can we put in them?

You know, that's the challenge that we have.

And so to staff those two units, we need that one staff person to staff those two units.

It and they usually sit on our second floor, and that uh floor usually has two to three deputies that are on it managing another four uh housing units as well.

Um so it it's not any more challenging to house a female inmate.

Uh it doesn't cost anymore.

Um, it's just you have the same challenges you do housing male inmates as you females that you have to make sure people are separated and segregated appropriately so that they're as safe as possible when they're in the detention center.

I think what I'm just trying to draw out and make sure that I understand is you know, if we um we're at 250, if we let's say eliminated the women from the jail, we'd be at 230.

But which based on the the total number doesn't change anything, but it would if we eliminated those 20 women because those are uh in two different sections.

You can you know, I mean there's your two classifications and your two areas of the jail that are you know it would provide us more space in you know to house other male inmates in those spots potentially and we could look at efficiencies potentially if we didn't have any female inmates, there there might be efficiencies we could find potentially with that.

Okay, um, maybe uh yeah, you know.

Okay, I thank you.

Didn't mean to so you said 340 capacity, um 255 per day.

So I came up with 93,000 per year per inmate at full capacity.

Is that sure correct?

Yeah, okay.

If it's the engineer, I'll use the calculator.

And if you if you if we have lower capacity, you said it will cost more.

Right.

I mean, that's the way right now it costs it's costing us more than 93,000 per year per inmate, correct?

Yeah, I mean given the the numbers, yes, you're you're paying more per inmate, right?

But just remember if that inmates go up, then you're paying less per inmate, which isn't really accurate because they're all getting the same health care, the same um, you know, food, they're all getting the same programming opportunities, like we're not uh you know that that's the that's the thing that's kind of I take your point.

Yeah, trying to drill down on okay, and that number is not fully funded by the city.

There's a an amount yes.

So I have a budget memo, Mr.

City Manager.

I'm trying to understand how much the city is paying per inmate, right?

Because so if you so if you take so the way that the jail cost report breaks it down is that it's saying that the the funding percent of total expenditures by source, okay.

So state funded is 19.91%.

Um federally funded is 21.41%.

And uh local operating, uh, which is the city is 57.92%.

And then 0.76 is other funding.

Um we have a contract with false church, who we have some of their folks there, and there's some other numbers that go into that.

But basically the city's on the hook um for 57.92%, and that's around 18 million dollars.

I I I guess what I'm getting at is right now since COVID, we have not we've been at we haven't hit full capacity, right?

Correct.

And either we hit full capacity or we go down to 150.

But where we are right now, that's not the optimal number.

We're we're essentially wasting money.

So what what I want to know is what options do we have?

Can we and I know that other jurisdictions are correct me if I'm wrong, Sheriff Casey, other jurisdictions are in a similar situation, correct?

Yes, so I I think the to break it down to kind of factor it this way for you all to think about it, is that um the local inmates that we have in our jail are the city's responsibility.

Okay.

So what does that mean?

So if the local inmates, if they're no longer in our jail, right?

If if you decide, okay, we're not gonna have a jail, for example, the local inmates still are your responsibility.

So you would have to find somewhere else to house them, and you would have to pay somewhere else to house them.

And so what what you're thinking about, councilman, is you're gonna have to say, okay, right now the city is contributing 18.3 million dollars for our local inmates, basically, right?

Foot to run to run the jail, right?

So that's that's your number.

That's how much you're spending.

So the question is if they are somewhere else, how much is that gonna cost you?

How much is Falsturch spaying us to help their inmate?

Uh I think it's eighty-five dollars right now.

Eighty-five dollars today.

Yeah.

And that's usually the standard practice of how it works, you know, when it's a small number of inmates, like they're very, very few inmates that we house for them.

Um, and they'll come over and you you you basically because you're you're open, you have open beds, you want to bring in revenue where you can, and that's an example of doing that.

You're never gonna get um, you know, it's hard to get uh, you know, to charge 255 dollars a day uh for someone they're gonna find somebody cheaper, usually.

Um so it's something we're looking at and we need to look at for sure as a potential uh you know revenue increase and and re and review that, but ultimately um I don't see it going up to 255 dollars a day.

I don't think they would probably stay with us if we were to increase it that high.

Actually, I was asking to to get a sense of how much it will cost us to put to give our image somebody else.

That's another great question.

My question to staff is what do you need from us from council to explore all these options to potentially either bring people in to reach maximum capacity or send people out to reach the 150 number?

I I think the question that you're asking is I'm I would treat that like a budget memo and be able to respond to that.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Um with I think this full for now.

I know I hung the wind for a while.

Uh Vice Mayor Bagley, and then I have councilman Gary.

Um just just to kind of clarify on you mentioned some of the contractual costs that kept going to that that figure, and you mentioned like food cost, medical cost.

But I assume the nature of those contracts are not fixed.

You don't have to buy 340 meals.

You can you you're in a food contract that let's say you have 262 people there that day, or it's like the sliding scale.

So like, you know, there's uh the more inmates you have, the cost per meal goes down a little bit, the less you have, the cost goes up because they're still trying to make their bottom line number and make sure they have enough money to fund the food and the the workers and that type of thing.

Yeah, they have to factor like the chef is the chef, you know, and take X number of meals, but we're not paying for like what I'm getting at is not paying for food we're not eating.

Correct.

No, we're not doing that.

We're not paying for 340 spot food.

But it's like it's it's it's a sliding scale, like you know.

So if you you know, they're they're going, they're saying if you go up a certain number, then the cost will start to come down.

But if you go down in in population, then the number the cost per meal is going to go up.

Councilman Agar.

Um with that 255 inmates, um, can you give us a breakdown of of federal and then who are Alexandria and then other jurisdictions?

Uh yes.

So in 2025, it was 127 who were federal inmates.

Um, and out outside of our jurisdiction that weren't federal.

So Foss Church or anybody that we might have taken them.

I wanna say that number is probably very low.

Um, I'd have to look in that and see it's probably in the the teens.

Okay, if if that, if probably even lower.

They only send us their state responsible inmates, those are people that have been sentenced.

Um, so it's a very, very small number.

Um, and so if we were operating under 150.

What does that do?

So here's the challenge with that is that if you go to basically to get to 150, you could no longer have the federal inmates there.

You get rid of the federal contract, and that's 7.4 million dollars.

Um, reducing the federal contract, getting rid of it, right?

For example, getting rid of that 7.4 would not offset the cost of redo of the staff reductions and the the reductions we could make.

Like we couldn't make up that $7.4 million in efficiencies.

We might be able to make up maybe half of it, um, maybe a little bit more than half, but not the whole amount.

Let's have Reno.

Councilman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, Sheriff Casey.

Um, my question is around the programming in jail.

So you're not looking to cut any of the programming, correct?

No.

Okay.

No, I I appreciate the city manager um for not taking the GED cut that we proposed.

That's a big non-personnel expenditure.

Um, so I appreciate him not taking that.

Okay.

And that's finding other ways.

Okay, wonderful.

And I know there's also um ESL classes, English as a second language classes.

My question is um, you know, from the data that we get in the health and safety committee, the numbers are you know dropping in the two programs.

Um, what is that because the number of inmates is dropping, or they just don't feel comfortable going to the programming?

Yes, the number of inmates are dropping, is is mostly what that's attributed to.

Uh ultimately we can't force people to participate in programs in the jail.

It's optional, it's voluntary, right?

So we advertise, we promote, we have a whole unit, second chance unit that's all inmates who are there for programming opportunities.

And sometimes that unit is at capacity, sometimes it's not.

So the reduction does really correlate with the the reduction of inmates um in the facility.

Okay, thank you.

Um councilman.

Um Sheriff Casey, but it is it possible for us to get a year over year from 2020 to now of um, and I know the numbers fluctuate and everything, but just uh a daily average of total and then the breakdown for federal versus uh local.

Yeah, sure.

Perfect.

Thank you.

I had two follow-up questions.

One issue that has come up a number of times um in front of the council was that uh the sheriff's department does not use the city attorney for FOIA request, but instead uses outside council.

What is the cost of maintaining the outside council?

It's uh it's an as needed basis.

We don't have a retainer, we don't have anybody on retainer.

Um, we don't have an attorney on retainer in the office.

We seek out legal guidance on a as needed basis for FOIA requests.

Do you know how much has been spent since I guess the start of last year?

Um I believe it's definitely under $10,000, uh, but probably maybe 5,000.

If we could get an exact number since um January of last year, that'd be great.

The other question I had, um, there were cuts that were proposed but were not taken.

I think it's the on-site meals um for deputies and then the reduction to the medical contract.

I guess I'm curious, kind of, I know you look at the whole budget, sort of how did these rise to the top as potential cuts that could be taken and what would be the impacts of taking those.

So we looked at the entire office and we looked at how do we maintain our core legal responsibilities.

And we started to have to look at things that maybe we didn't have to have in order to maintain those core responsibilities, right?

Um, for example, the GED program, there's no legal or law that obligates us or requires us to have a GD program in the jail.

The when it comes to the staff meals in the facility, that is something we don't have to provide, but we provide it obviously because staff can't leave uh the facility.

Um so they don't have anywhere they can go and eat.

They can't just leave their post and go out and get a hamburger they have to order in or they have to bring food in.

Um so it's a a benefit that we provide to them for working in the jail and being in that environment for 12 and a half hours each day.

Uh the medical efficiency, uh, so what we discussed about that is that uh we're not getting any new money for continuing services, and we're gonna use that money to help us fund our continuing services, our medical contract, or food contract, and other items that we need to fund in order to keep the office running.

Um, and that was an efficiency that we're gonna use to do that.

Okay.

The seven day uh deputy vacancies, how long have they been vacant?

Um so when I came and spoke to you uh last year, I had 17 deputy sheriff vacancies.

Uh now I have seven.

So they've been vacant for a while.

Um, but I will say that all those seven positions are being backfilled through overtime or or part-time staff that we've been able to have returned to work in the office.

So it's not that they're not being used at all.

Um there's positions are being filled, they're just being filled through overtime and part-time staff, part-time deputies.

And then if you do feel these positions with the part-time staff go away, or kind of what's the what's the difference?

That's correct.

We would start reducing our part-time staff.

Okay.

Do you have a sense of what's the difference in cost between the model you currently have versus full-time, seven full-time deputies?

Uh it's probably more because uh when you're paying overtime, um, it's definitely more.

Uh you're paying at time and a half rate.

Um, and you know, also uh the part-time staff members, um it's probably uh a little bit less than an FT, but they're not working 40 hours a week.

You know, so we're hiring multiple part-time staff members to make up that 40 hours a week equivalent.

Okay.

I'd I'd love to see how many part-time um staff have been hired to fill that gap.

I don't know if that's a budget memo, if that's just an email.

Um, and then the last question I had was going back, you said when you were looking at your budgeting and potential cuts, you looked at um all of the things you do that aren't legally mandated.

Do you have a list of those that we could see?

Like where what other costs are being spent for things that you do not have to do in order to fulfill the duty of the job.

Um yeah, I mean, basically what that is is our inmate programs unit is probably the biggest area where there's a lot of uh like we don't have to have a re-entry counselor, we don't have to have a volunteer coordinator, we don't need a programs uh you know, deputy per se.

I mean, that's one area that I can tell you directly that really comes to mind as somewhere that we are not legally mandated.

There are some programming items that are legally mandated, and I can give you that information and we can look at that.

Um, but other than that, there really isn't anything else.

Okay, thank you.

Uh thanks, Mayor Bagley.

Oh, I'm sorry.

No, okay.

And then council.

Um I have a I have a bit of a non-budgetary question, but it's something as out of all the sort of public safety departments in our budget materials.

I noticed that there wasn't like a performance indicator in the sheriff section.

And I'm curious um if there, if there were to be one, you know, what metrics, you know, earlier we referenced sort of the number of calls to A Corp and the fire department has, you know, response times under two minutes.

Um what what are your performance indicators?

I mean, what are what are you using to evaluate whether department is continuing to improve year over year?

So we examine a lot of things when we're looking at if we're improving year to year.

Um, obviously, we're looking at um number one, is the jail safe, right?

And we're looking at those metrics.

Uh, obviously, the number of in custody deaths, suicides, uh, assaults on staff, assaults on inmates, um, you know, uh, you know, number of issues that we're having internally with inmates, grievances, things like that.

Uh, we're also looking at a lot of workload metrics, like when it comes to transports, going back and forth to court, transporting folks to medical appointments.

Um, are they safe?

Are they not safe?

Um, and uh things like that.

And are we serving process um safely?

Are we doing a good job with that?

Uh, you know, are we um you know, having court hearings that are staffed appropriately?

Are our staff there?

Are they making sure the court hearing is safe?

Um, that's what we look at every day and and what we do.

The report that you referenced, I think that the mayor asked to be circulated.

Does it include information on those items that we could sort of see how how are we doing from a safe, you know, secure jail perspective?

Um we have uh a work uh uh productivity um uh work performance indicators.

We have that document.

We can share that with you.

Okay, thank you.

I'd appreciate that.

Are there any additional oh yes, I'm sorry, Councilman Green.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Um, Sheriff Casey, um, on average, can you tell me how many, how much um yearly uh the department brings in from inmate fees?

And then what those what those fees are used for?

So right now, on average, uh we're bringing in about 270, 280,000 in inmate fees, and those are all used directly for inmate programming uh for the inmates mental health, uh, physical health, and inmate programming.

Um, such as paying our worker inmates that work in the kitchen, uh, paying those that do our laundry, paying those um that are cleaners in our housing units, um, also paying our ESL teacher, paying our chaplain, um, also uh funding uh like programs like our Black History Program, um, other things like that.

Um, in addition, um supplies that relate to programming, um, all those different things.

Now, I will sell those fees are are gonna start to drop because of some FCC issues, and we've done a lot of work to lower those fees uh for the inmates, and and we've had lower our our commissions um as well as a result of that.

Uh, but yes, so that's kind of where all those all those fees have to go back to the benefit of the inmate.

And you use the total amount each year.

Uh yes, we do.

Okay, thank you.

I have two uh quick process questions.

One, it seems to me like there are a lot of reports that are done that have information that would be helpful for this body to receive on a regular cycle.

I guess currently, once the jail report's done, the staffing report, like what is I mean, is that publicized?

Is there usually a notification?

Like, what could we do to standardize that process so that that's coming to the council more quickly?

Yeah, I mean, we the we work with the city with the jail cost report and we keep them informed of that.

We work with them on that.

So we're happy to give that to you when it comes out so you will have it uh when the FY25 report comes out.

It's and it's for the whole state.

So it's it's pretty informative.

Uh the jail staffing study, I did provide that to city manager's office.

We've been talking about, we haven't had a chance to sit down and make any decisions or uh items to to do anything with it.

Happy to provide it to you all as well.

Um, you know.

Yeah, I I guess I'd like to get to a point and it's something that we can work through the manager's office on, but when there's new information like this that contains important information that impacts budget decisions, I think it should just automatically be sent to the council or it's sent to the manager and sent immediately to the council.

The second question I had, um, we are in the process for all of our uh quasi agencies or agencies where we have a separate relationship establishing MOUs.

What is the status of the MOU with the sheriff's department?

Uh we're still working on it with the city manager's office.

What is the timeline by which it will be completed?

Not sure.

Okay.

Um I'd be love at some point to get an update.

I know part of the reason why we started the MOU process is we wanted clarity when we do budgeting, when we do engagements with other departments, that it feels like we're about to enter into another budget without having the clarity of that relationship.

And so I think some of that needs to be defined before we continue to move forward.

Um so I don't know what it'll take to get that over the finish line, but would like to see an update on that.

Any additional questions?

Okay, thank you, Sheriff Casey.

Thank you.

Our next department is the fire department.

Well, we're not I'm gonna ask that everyone please leave quietly.

All right.

That down in there.

Okay.

All right.

Wait for the door to shut and we'll continue.

Good evening, council members.

Um, my name is Felipe Hernandez, Fire Chief.

Um, so here to discuss our budget proposal for fiscal year 2027.

Uh, first up, collect the bargaining wage adjustments.

Um, this covers the increases in uh pay salaries, um, merit raises, also any type of specialty pay that we're um discussed during TBA on negotiations.

Uh the next one is increased staffing for four additional FTEs.

This is towards the implementing uh of the 46 hour work week in three years.

Um so we broke up the FTE uh needed to reach 46 hours in three years amongst the next three um fiscal years.

So for this one, it's gonna be four additional FTE starting mid-year in January.

Uh next up is the emergency management positions uh support position.

This is for the two deputy emergency management coordinator positions.

Those positions were previously funded through grants, UASC funds, which we lost.

So we transitioned the funding over to uh full-time city funding.

Um obviously those two positions are very critical to the emergency operations and preparedness for the city.

Um so we you know we pushed to continue that funding to move those positions uh forward.

Uh next is another CBA item regarding promotional exams.

Uh per the CBA, we're required to do um exams every two-year cycle.

So for the next uh fiscal year for 2027, we're gonna be doing the battalion chief and lieutenant exam at that time.

Uh next, EMS language line for uh 11,995.

Um, that's to help with language interpretation to make sure that the fire department's in compliance with the city's uh language um access policy.

Uh and then in regards to our reductions.

Uh Councilman Gary.

Uh Chief, can you uh clarify a little bit more with the language line?

So is this emergency calls or is this just calls coming in to emergency calls?

We use them for emergency calls.

So like at scene and stuff when we're at scenes.

When you're on scene.

On scene, correct.

Okay, yeah, because I I I was thinking, I was like, Dex already doing that with the 911 entry calls.

So I didn't, I don't know, wasn't understanding.

Okay, yeah, probably.

When you're on scene, correct.

Gotcha.

All right, thank you.

Um, and then for our reduction, uh, we propose a reduction overtime.

Um, due with the schedule change from moving from the third shift to the fourth shift schedule.

Um, great news, we are uh fully staffed at this time.

Um not only that, we're actually into overhires at as well.

Um so with that, that helps us to help manage our overtime regards to having the staffing.

But not only that, we continue to look for efficiencies to ensure that we're continuing to look at what's causing us overtime to make sure we keep addressing that as well.

So it's a constant uh, you know, uh review in regards to what's causing the overtime and what's needed uh to reduce it even further in the future.

Um next slide.

Okay, in regards to the scheduler fee that was proposed, uh, the first one I'll talk about is the retesting fee.

Um the last time the fee were updated was in 20 fiscal year 2021.

So we're asking for an increase per fee of 58 dollars, which is gonna bring us up to 220, which is gonna be in line with local jurisdictions.

Um also we're fully staffed in that position with our six um FTEs plus the supervisor.

So as long as we manage and maintain those positions, um, we project uh increase of fees in the 400 and 1,000.

And then regards to the fire uh prevention permit.

Um last time we update updated those fees were fiscal year 2019, so it's been a while.

Um the goal was to kind of once again be aligned with local jurisdictions.

Most of the fees were a 10% increase, um, but we also made some new adjustments in regards to maybe combining some of the fees into one fee.

Uh that was something we heard from stakeholders in regards to you know why we're doing multiple um requests from permits we could also make the process even easier for um stakeholders to manage and and apply for permits.

So and that's what I have at this point.

Any questions?

Councilman Alnuby.

Um Chief, there was a non-fiscal year grant that went down um between FOI26 and FY27, went down by $356,000.

It's on page 14.31.

Can you just tell me more about what um I believe those are related to the UASC grants?

Grants.

Yeah, that's correct.

Uh the grant that we lost for the emergency management uh coordinator positions.

Oh UASI.

Yep.

Okay, thank you.

Um I had a question.

Um, this may be for the city manager or for director Route.

Um, one issue that continues to be brought up with the council is battalion chief pay parity.

I'm curious what specific steps in this budget will be taken to address that.

Yeah, I can answer that.

So um we're required to do a meet and confer that I think is being scheduled.

Um there's been uh I think a very robust analysis done by our human resource department, and uh we're looking to make some adjustments and those salaries uh in this fiscal year, um, probably utilizing some of our potential budget savings at the end of the year.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Uh Councilman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Hi, Chief.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Um thank you for the breakdown.

I have a question.

Um, how and it's wonderful that you're fully staffed.

How many months have you been fully staffed?

Uh what the recruits just came out uh a month ago.

So at that point when they came out.

Um, I mean, we had them at the recruit class, but to really make a difference, they're finally out of the line at this time.

So we have them out um at this time.

So I mean, we still have you know, people in restricted duty.

I mean, we have other opportunity that causes overtime, but in regards to staffing, we're fully staffed at this time.

Okay.

Yep.

And the additional four FTEs that will start in January.

What are those positions?

Yeah.

So those are the those are the firefighters' positions for the relief factor to allow us to go from the 49 hours the collective bargain.

Yes.

Um, we have to start doing it now because if we do too much at one time, then we we're gonna need an additional recruit classes, which is gonna be additional cost.

Got it.

So part of the process was just kind of spread it out to minimize the need to do a second recruit class, which would be about a $500,000 cost.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

Yep.

Questions for the chief.

Um Mr.

Manager.

I I just wanted to add, um, I do think um under uh Chief Hernandez's leadership, being fully staffed in this region for a fire department is really almost unheard of.

And I just want to commend him and his team.

And that's that's a really that's a really significant moment.

Thank you.

No, Chief, we are very grateful and proud of your leadership.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

And thank you for the support.

Okay.

Okay.

If there's any more questions for you, I'll take it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't know how you got put so late in the lineup.

It's all good.

Okay.

Next is uh other public safety and justice services.

We had the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center and Shelter Care.

Welcome.

Hello.

Good evening, um, Madam Mayor and Madam Vice Mayor and City Manager and Council.

Thank you.

So for the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center this year, we um we had a small budget reduction of um $55,292, which we've worked to um make up with um with our per diem income that we have, providing services to juveniles with the Department of Juvenile Justice.

And um that has been able for us that has provided us the opportunity to make up for any deficits that we've um encountered in previous years, well, this current year, and I think it will allow us to be able to um absorb the $55,292 that we forecast for this year.

I had a uh follow-up question given the discussion earlier about technology.

I just would love your perspective and if as um if the center has done any look at sort of what it would take to um better outfit the current space.

Sure, of course.

So um for years there were no technology upgrades made to the center because there was some question for a while as to you know the future of the center.

And it just we just did not make those costly investments.

Um we do, however, plan to update our control center, which is about a million dollar upgrade.

Um we're working with our our commission and our commission attorney and um to get the the quotes to get that taken care of.

And when we heard um um Judge Sherlock, you know, mentioned something that's just been an obvious problem for us is the way the court is set up, the way the whole setup is at the center.

When the set when the um facility was upgraded back in the 90s, that wasn't taken into consideration.

So we just started jotting down uh areas in the facility that we might be able to convert to um a better space for the for court for our kids.

And with this upgrade, I think we could tie that into that because it would take some technology upgrades, which we're already budgeting for.

So I I think that's something we can easily um address once we get this this upgrade um started.

Okay.

So just so I'm tracking it, it sounds like the best way to go about this type of um upgrade would be to do it in alignment with the overall upgrade for the control center.

Yes, ma'am.

And then I guess it'd be helpful to understand, and this might be part of the memo if the funding for it that is budgeted for the control center upgrade is enough to cover both that and an outfit of a new space, or if additional funding is needed.

Sure.

I the reason I think the two tie together is because of the technology that will probably be you know required to make the upgrade.

Spatially, we have spaces that we've already identified that could potentially be better.

Okay.

And I I think tying that into the current the upgrade is going to be, I don't, I can't foresee that being more significant at all.

We just will put that into our, you know, the budget for that upgrade.

Am I answering the question?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

Um, other questions, Richine.

Uh let me I called on you first last time, so I'm coming to Councilwoman Green.

And then by saying, Hello, good evening.

I love your shirt.

Good evening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Um, my question is around vacancies currently uh at the detention center, FTE vacancy.

So, yes, ma'am.

So we, you know, it's it's it's a tough business to staff for, right?

It's challenging.

Our population is challenging, and finding the right staffing is is just, you know, always something we work hard to do.

So we right now we have 13.5 vacancies.

So a part-time position is vacant, and then 13 um other positions are vacant.

Um, we we just lost um about five staff in the last couple of weeks.

Um, some of them were new hires, and they they come in, they get the training, and then they start the work, and it's it's you know, difficult sometimes, you know.

Got it.

And um, what is um are you at capacity in the in the detention center?

What's the breakdown?

Sure.

Boys, girls.

Yes, ma'am.

So we're funded to house 46 youth, right?

It's a 70-bed facility, but our funding supports housing 46 residents.

And for um, the month of February, our utilization was at 90% of that 46.

So on February 2nd, we have 41 residents.

On February 27th, we have 43 residents.

So, and of course, some of those are the residents that we are contracted to hold for the Department of Juvenal Justice.

Um, and we also um hold residents for the city of Portsmouth because they don't have a juvenile detention center.

So they pay for um a per diem for their children to be housed with us.

How many from Alexandria currently?

We have nine residents from Alexandria today, which is about 25% of our current population today.

All right.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

For contracts with agencies like the city of Portsmouth, um, let's say you were at 46.

Since they pay for their, would you be able to take 47 since they're covering it, or how does that work?

So they only pay when we have when we accept their children.

So we don't So you wouldn't accept actually.

Oh no, ma'am.

Got it.

Oh, ma'am.

Understood.

Vice Mayor Bagley.

Um, I was wondering if you could provide an update on how the renovation to the units are going.

And I wish we had brought pictures.

Okay.

And just as you do that, if there's any comment on how funding is related to the progress on that and sure.

So what we're doing is is pretty unique in the state out of the 26 juvenile facilities.

We're the only facility that is removing those concrete slab beds.

Um, and currently, as of today, we've had two of our four housing units that are being used to house residents.

That's 60 beds.

Two of those units have had the slabs removed completely.

And one of them has been furnished with the new um more trauma-informed um furnishings that's more appropriate for our adolescent population, and just to house children in a fashion that is more in keeping with treatment and not so much corrections.

Sure, we're public safety and we want to keep the the you know our facility in a public safety setting as corrective as possible, but we really want to understand that our population are juvenile residents often as young as 12.

Um, and our average age is about 15.

And so just understanding the needs of our population and our children are often um traumatized, already experienced lots of trauma, you know, from home life or sometimes in the community, we really don't want to exacerbate that by the surrounding.

So being able to change that for our kids is huge.

And being the first facility in the state to do that, I'm very proud that we've pushed and achieved that um approval for the from the Department of Juvenile Justice.

And so we anticipate by summer that all of our all of our beds will be um removed, those concrete slabs will be removed, and those sleeping rooms will be more like a room in a instead of a jail cell.

Thank you for that.

And um for the approach, I think my colleague spoke about this earlier.

Maybe just when you went to the facility, it it it it doesn't feel as incarceral, I think, as it has in the past.

Um, and so hopefully that's resulting in better outcomes as well.

You know, of course, man.

For the youth who spend time there, um, and I I think you've already sort of implicitly answered my question, but I was curious if there's a if there were funding gaps that were delaying or extending that project.

But based on your timeline, it sounds like you intend to wrap up that project in this fiscal year.

Or yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

I think that's quite possible.

Typically, what we're doing is we're shutting down a housing unit.

Yeah.

And then just kind of moving our children accordingly.

And so really what we've been able to do is just shut down one unit at a time.

It would had our population been a little lower, we might have tried to shut down more than one unit.

But right now it works for us to have one unit shut down at a time as it is um um as the construction takes place and the remodeling takes place.

And just to circle back to make sure I heard all the numbers correctly, uh, 70 beds, funding for 46, utilizations hovering around 90 percent, nine, 25% or so are Alexandria.

Um we also had can do you have in front of you sort of how the other localities that that contribute to the facility are part of that 90%.

Yes.

Um Arlington has nine today as well.

So and today we had 30 35 residents.

So that's a low number for us for this year completely.

Um so um, so that would give Arlington and Alexandria each at about 50, 50 percent utilization for on average.

On average, and then City of Portsmouth, and then where who's the other contract remind me?

DJ Department of Juvenile Justice.

Okay.

Thank you, ma'am.

Okay, Councilwoman Green, right?

Do you have the breakdown on average, male versus female, like any given year is so it it really fluctuates?

Okay, but I will say in this last two years since COVID, post-COVID, our female population has been so high.

And it's a younger population.

Today we have six females, and that's a low number.

We've been a little higher than that um so far this year, but we're down to six today.

And one is Alexandria.

Thanks, Mary Back.

Yeah, I realize we're getting a little farther afield than like pure fiscal questions here, but it's just a unique opportunity, I think, to have you here.

I'm curious from my my experiences coming and visiting you there, the degree to which there is sort of um gang and crew activity that is contributing perhaps to this rise in the female population.

And I'm just I'm curious if if that's just a fluke of when I visited or some of the specific cases we've spoken about, and if you have any ongoing relationship with like, you know, our gang prevention task force or others working on that issue in the city.

I think uh what we've experienced with the female population increase is more trafficking and um exploitation, right?

And so we have been working very closely with um DCH uh Department of Yes, yes.

We have been working very closely with them, and um they're um they they do a program with our girls and our and our male residents about um safety um and some of the some of the risk factors that our girls face.

When our girls run away from home, they don't often have a place to go.

And a lot of it is you know, disruption in the home, they run away and then they start the criminal behavior to survive, whether they're stealing or five, all those things kind of lead to them being um, you know, maybe um incarcerated or or brought into the system.

Why don't we pivot to shelter care, Ms.

Rainey?

Yes.

So our approved budget from the commission was met.

Um we are currently identifying different ways to um explore different revenues.

Um we anticipate 150K and revenues from Arlington on per DM placements, but we still have 180,000 um that we're operating in a deficit budget, but we're looking at different ways to match that, whether it's grants, per d emplacements.

But our goal is really to provide um 24-7 access for our Alexandria kids, both DSS placements, which we're unique in the sense that we're not just court order placements, but we're also providing emergency placements.

So in the middle of the night, um domestic violence, parent gets incarcerated, you name it, we see it.

So really providing the 24 access to the Alexandria kids is critical.

Um to date, we started in 2021 with serving 16 kids per year, and now in 2025, we're serving 94.

So we've seen an increase quickly, and we're serving the kids that need the care the most.

Well, thank you.

Um, I have a couple quick follow-up questions.

Um, one, is there a waiting list currently?

Currently, we have a waiting list for our female population.

We currently have eight females and 11 residents today in shelter care.

So similar to detention, there is not enough beds for our female youth.

And um, I recognize sort of how great the need has grown and how many more you're serving, but also how many more we'd love to be able to serve.

I'm curious, even if there was additional funding, is there space challenges that would limit the capacity of beds that we're able to provide?

So there is space challenges um because we have a male hallway and a female hallway are currently how we're operating is our female are on our male hallway hallway and our males are on our female hallway, just given the space number.

What we've also been able to do though is starting the after school program, the community resource and reporting center.

A lot of our youth that may be awaiting a shelter care bed are able to start the after school program.

And what we found is not all of our kids need a shelter care placement.

We're able to provide that gap from three to eight to where we're even diverting kids from shelter care using that resource.

So um there is a space limitation, but we've found different and creative ways to combat that issue.

Is there any waiting list for the after school program?

There is.

So currently we are only serving eight youth in the after school program, but we have 12 kids to date in the after school program, but some kids might have therapy one day, and so they're not coming on that date.

So we've been really flexible in trying to get as many kids in the program.

Um right now we were at 14 youth on the wait list for the after school program.

And the after school program right now, mere shelter care.

It is mostly female residents in the after school program.

And are there any space constraints to clearing the waiting list for the out-of-school time programs?

It is there's no take all 14.

We would be able to space-wise, but it's more budgetary.

Okay, just want to make sure that if we address budget issues, there's not another issue.

Um you mentioned sort of the um per diem rate that we currently get from Arlington.

When was the last time that that per diem changed?

It changed last fiscal year.

It changed from 317 um to 412.

And then I think that's the only question I have right now.

Are there questions for my colleague?

Councilman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, Ms.

Rainey, and thank you for the work that you do at shelter care.

Um it was very enlightening taking the tour over there.

Um with the facilities being so very old.

I was wondering, is there money or are we putting money in the budget to update you know the facilities?

Yes, that is in the budget, and we also are in the capital improvement um plan with the city of Alexandria, but that is an ever-changing need of shelter care.

It was once a temporary storage building from 198 or 86.

So there's things that break every day, and we we have to address those issues.

Um, but we we have allocated money in the budget for that.

Um, Director Rout, can I get a budget memo on the cost to clear the waiting list for the out of school time program?

Yes.

Well, thank you all for joining us this evening.

Appreciate it.

Uh that is our last department, unless anyone I see our Commonwealth attorney, our clerk of court, some others who joined us.

If anyone has questions.

Okay, it doesn't seem like it.

So then our next work session is on March.

Oh wow, there's two next weeks.

Monday.

So we have the uh budget public hearing on Saturday.

But it's been a busy week.

It's gonna be a busy week next week.

We have the Saturday public hearing and then Monday and Wednesday uh are the next two work sessions.

Okay.

We'll see everyone back in here on Saturday.

Oh, we're getting so good at this.

It's nine o'clock, meeting adjourn.