Remind me.

Okay, there we go.

Recording has officially started.

Wendy, remind me, do we have meeting minutes that we need to approve from the previous meeting?

Okay.

We do have last time, yeah.

I I know we missed one, so I wasn't sure if we had got that already.

Um, Councilman Chapman, can you please make a motion to approve the meeting minutes from the meeting two weeks ago?

Can we lose on muted?

Councilman Chapman, if you're speaking, you're still muted.

No, I don't know why it wasn't letting me unmute.

Thank you.

Um Madam Mayor would like to make a motion to approve the minutes.

I'll second it.

So in a motion and a second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

The ayes have it.

Meeting minutes approved.

With that, I will turn it over to Director Ginsberg to begin our updates.

Happy Friday night, everybody.

Thanks for the meeting.

Thanks for handing it over, Mayor and Councilman.

The first thing we're going to talk about today was just an overview of what's happening with the budget.

I do want to give just stop and say we did adjourn the General Assembly did adjourn signe die on Friday or last Friday.

At the end of the deliberations for the General Assembly session, the House and the Senate were still pretty far apart on what amount of money they believe they have.

So it's not really clear what the universe of funding will be.

So it's really difficult to budget anything if you can't agree on the amount of dollars you have to budget.

So the House and Senate are still hashing out exactly how much funding they will have to use when they're uh picking their priorities and deciding where that funding should go.

We talked a little bit about this at previous meetings.

The Senate would like to eliminate the tax break for data centers to when they purchase uh different pieces of uh what they use inside of their data centers.

They were going to remove that tax uh tax break for those data centers and use that funding that would be generated from those tax revenues toward uh what could be used by the state for funding different ideas and and concepts and programs and practices.

Um the House did not have the that funding incorporated into its budget.

So they are still deciding how much funding they have, and then they will use that to uh decide what they're going to invest in.

The city is still very focused on advocating for several of its priorities, including WAMATA funding.

We talked a lot about this over the last few weeks.

Uh WAMATA funding and VRE funding, just transit writ large for Northern Virginia, which does underpin a lot of um a lot of Northern Virginia's economy and frankly, a lot of Virginia's economy overall.

So we're especially focused on operating funding for WAMATA.

We have a 153 million dollar funding gap.

Um we estimate that the City of Alexandria's uh section of that funding is about 21 million dollars.

So we are set uh certainly focused on making sure that that ends up in the budget.

The good news um is that both both the House and Senate think WAMATA needs funding.

It's just um how much funding and what that funding can be used for.

The House was focused on operating funding, the Senate was focused on um more capital funding.

So it's just making sure that we get that operating funding, which is uh more urgent of a need for our transit system, uh, and we're working toward that.

The second thing that we are working on is continuing to advocate for funding for Freedom House Museum.

We have a two uh we asked for two million dollars originally.

There's a one million dollar ask that is in the Senate, uh, the Senate budget.

We are making sure that our delegation is aware of that funding ask and how much of a priority it is for the city.

So we are continuing to advocate for that funding as well.

We're always watching the school funding, and then there were other priorities for the city, including um urban area security initiative, UASI funding, um, and a whole bunch of like stormwater funding and other funding that is in that budget.

We are continuing to advocate for it.

Um the budget is supposed to be finished soon.

It was just announced recently that there will be a special session on April 23rd uh for budget consideration for the General Assembly.

So uh it will be finished by then.

Um, and in the meantime, we will certainly be advocating for our priorities in that budget.

And I'm gonna stop there and see if you have any questions about where the budget is or what our budget items are or what our budget priorities are as a city.

I don't have enough.

Sense of how the conversations are going in the Maryland assembly related to AMATA funding.

So Maryland has a different structure for their WAMATA funding.

They actually created one of the conversations we were having in Virginia was creating a long-term funding source for WAMATA, so you wouldn't have to go back and ask for funding each year.

I believe that Maryland and DC had created sort of long-term funding sources that would fund WAMATA.

I will look that up, but that is my thinking and what I'd learned over time for how Virginia is different than the other two jurisdictions when it comes to WAMATA funding.

They have sort of better long-term sustainable funding sources.

I'll I'll look into it and make sure that we understand where each of the other jurisdictions are as well.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

No problem.

I have an additional question for Jim.

Okay.

One of the bills I wanted to return to was SB454.

This was the buyright zoning bill.

It was often referred to as housing, our job housing near jobs bill.

This was a bill we originally watched.

We moved to oppose, and I just wanted to make sure we were clear on some of the reasons why we opposed the bill or ended up opposing the bill.

We as a city have done incredible things in terms of really building housing stock and leaning in on building affordable housing.

This bill was written in a way where we shared the goals of the bill, which was to increase housing stock and build housing near jobs and make sure that our teachers and our first responders can have places to live.

The bill wasn't going to unlock a lot of blocked housing capacity.

Rather, it was going to change what gets built in the spaces that we already have and uh and build on the what could be commercially planned sites.

And it would remove a lot of our core economic development tools that Alexander relies on to shape growth.

So we have remaining commercial corridors and activity centers that represent the city's best opportunities for future job generation generating uses, including offices, hotels, retail, entertainment, and cultural destinations.

And you can think of something like the landmark mall redevelopment area and what we're really trying to do and not create like a zero-sum game between only housing and only commercial.

We think that in the future it has to be all of them together and making sure that we are not just creating a residential tax base where we are having homeowners and renters shoulder the overwhelming share of the cost of schools and public safety and infrastructure and essential sources.

We wanted that to be carried across both commercial and housing.

So that was where we end we ended up on that bill.

That bill ended up not uh going into effect, but it's been clear to me that the patrons want to reintroduce that next General Assembly session.

So one of the things that uh staff will do is making sure that we're reaching out and engaging those patrons throughout the offseason and really offering our expertise as a leader in housing, building housing, building affordable housing, changing office space into affordable housing, all of those uh areas in which Alexandria is expert, making sure they have access to our experts and know exactly what might work in communities like ours, and um and help them uh reach out to other localities across the commonwealth to see that we get a bill that actually would make a material difference in how much housing we have in Virginia.

I don't know, okay.

Are there any questions on the SB454 bill or where we want that?

I can move on to the next one though, if we're already.

Okay.

Um the next one is uh Faith in Housing Bill.

Um we were a community, it's SB 388 on the in the Senate side.

Um we were from the outset one of the localities that sort of leaned in and worked with the stakeholders to get something that really worked for communities and uh they could build affordable, like really lean into building affordable housing on land owned by religious organizations and other qualifying nonprofits.

A lot of the negotiating that we did, and I just want to thank our staff, both our city attorney's office and Paul in the planning and zoning office for their countless hours of helping me figure out what the provisions should be that get put into this bill.

But we worked as a team to make sure that uh some of the provisions that got put in this bill would protect uh really valuable equities for the city, including uh archaeology uh protections, including historical protections, including environmental protections, and they are all baked into this legislation at this point as it moves uh as it goes to the governor's desk.

We really do think it will be a helpful tool for the city.

And uh we think that it also doesn't pit these values against each other, but sort of bakes them all together into a success story that can be used by these religious entities to contribute to not just housing, but affordable housing and uh growth in within and around the city and also in other localities across the commonwealth.

Um so we think that's a a success story for us.

All right, stop there.

I can move on to the next one if we're good.

All right.

Uh the next bill.

Let's go through them and then if we have questions, we'll just save them all for the the end.

Okay.

You bet.

Uh the next bill to talk about is uh the collective bargaining bill.

There's uh a bill headed to the governor's desk that would uh require collective bargaining across localities in the commonwealth at local governments and then the state government.

And I want uh Alexandria was a first adapter for collective bargaining under the permissive authority that already existed across the commonwealth.

Um we were actually the first locality in the state to create a um a provision that allowed for collective bargaining to happen.

We have currently five collective bargaining units, not even not including the schools.

Uh again, we were a first adapter, we leaned in, we worked really hard to get to the place that we are at now in collective bargaining.

This bill requires collective bargaining across the state.

Um one of the concerns that we have is that it it does it does some things where it it changes the structure potentially of the collective bargaining units, which could be uh confusing for operationalization, not just for the locality, but also for workers who voted themselves uh to become these collective bargaining units.

So we do have some um insights that we're hoping to share with the administration about questions we have about how this bill could be operationalized, particularly in localities that really leaned in and took advantage of the permissive authority that already existed.

Uh so staff are internally uh working to figure out exactly what this bill could look like, where our questions might be, and we're hoping to provide those to the administration so that they understand our questions about how this would work, not just for the city, but also for the the workers, um, our our employees who are you know always number one for us.

So I just wanted to update there that that that bill is headed to the governor's desk, and we're gonna provide you and uh you with some insights there as well.

And then the final bill I just want to highlight is the skill games bill.

We've talked about this a lot this uh General Assembly session as well.

Um, this bill, the there were two bills.

There was a House bill and a Senate bill.

They first were looking to create a regulatory structure, just allowing skill games all together in the Commonwealth upon enactment.

Um the House bill was the first one to be amended to create a referendum that uh that uh localities could use to opt in to uh skill games, which would mean that they would actually have to have a referendum before skill games could be uh used or operating in their in their locality.

The Senate version was amended to include an opt-out referendum where you would have an uh referendum to opt out of skill games.

Um the city fought really hard to stop skill games altogether.

I know that um Councilman Chapman testified against uh the skill games at one point, and I know um Councilman Agure uh wrote a letter in opposition for skill games um eventually when we realized that skill games were probably going to go into law.

We were trying to advocate on behalf of the opt-in measure.

Um the idea is that you can't put toothpaste back in the tube.

Uh unfortunately, what passed the floor on the signe di day, and it actually took three different tries for it to pass.

Um, our efforts were very effective.

Um, but what passed was an opt-out referendum, which wasn't our preferred referendum.

So that is what's headed to the governor's desk, and uh we are still thinking through what our next steps could be here, um, including uh continued work uh advocating for an opt-in referendum instead of an opt-out referendum uh from the city.

And I'm happy to go into any details there.

I know.

And I think was really, really critical in sort of highlighting the challenges of opt-out versus opt-in.

And so uh just want to make that point that that letter was really um really important there, especially in the last few days.

I think it gave folks who wanted to vote no a lot of top cover, um, and I think really highlighted the the the stark difference between opt-out and opt-in.

So just wanted to um flag that um and and say thank you to the mayor for that.

No, thank you.

I was glad to see um us leading the way and able to mobilize so many other mayors and chairs to join.

I guess I had one question on timing.

These last two bills, um Director Ginsberg, you mentioned sort of potentially sending comments to the governor.

Can you just help me understand timeline and kind of what um factors will use to make a decision about what we're sending and when we're sending on the last two items?

Absolutely.

Um so the the governor has until uh 1159 p.m.

on April 13th to make a determination on each of these bills.

Currently, those bills get farmed out to the sort of um agencies of expertise in the administration for them to recommend to the governor what next steps could be.

Um so one of the things we are doing now is working internally with our subject matter experts and our city attorney's office to figure out what our actual concerns are with the bill, with different bills or uh or insights we could offer on bills about how they uh could be operationalized or concerns about the operationalization.

We'll work through our city manager's office to make sure that we get you something in a timely fashion for your consideration in terms of next steps.

So uh I'm hoping to get you something early next week that would that for your consideration, particularly on those two items.

Um, and if there's any other items that sort of rise to this hop from there for potential next steps as well.

We're also talking to our peer communities to see what their concerns are about remaining bills as well.

Um, I know that they have um some of them have concerns about some of the bills that we are okay with, so we wouldn't necessarily take steps on those.

Um, but there are other bills that uh that have been flagged as well, and we uh would offer you something on those bills too, if there's something that we sort of agree with in terms of their concerns with those bills as well.

Yeah, I would um I guess a couple thoughts.

One, I'd like to see sort of what we can do to move as quickly as possible.

I think in talking to some of the other jurisdictions, they're already starting to get things to the governor's office.

I'm also mindful that we're gonna be going into add deletes and also spring break.

And so we might start just like, you know, I think it just might be challenging with everyone's schedules and timing and the other demands we're navigating.

So whatever we can do to move as quickly as possible, that would be great.

Even if that means we have to prioritize which things we're actually gonna focus on sending.

I know for me, I I really do think we can we should continue to beat the drum on skill games.

Um ever we can push though, but just mindful with the holiday coming up and all the budget deadlines, um, whatever we can do to get the precipice tied in a bow and off to the governor's office would be definitely we will get you something as soon as possible.

I would also just note that everything doesn't have to go together.

Um, if we can button up individual pieces and get those out into the administration for their consideration, um, you know, if if we have skill games ready to go, if we have collective bargaining ready to go, or however, you know, what the whatever the the order of operations or the um you know whatever we can get done and out the door quicker, um, there is no reason to hold things that are ready um for the things that are not quite there.

Um so I would just add that into the calculus.

Um Councilman Chapman, do you have any questions on these remaining bills, or should we put it to the next item?

Go ahead and do the next item.

Okay.

Um the final item is just uh an overview of where we stand on terms of uh a sort of a data rule of where we started and where we are now.

And just as a reminder, we started by tracking um almost 600 bills, 585 bills that had direct alignment to our legislative package or had operational or fiscal impacts to this potential fiscal impacts to the city.

And of those 105 were priority bills uh focused on advocacy.

Um now we have 312 bills that we are tracking that are headed to the governor's office.

The city supports um 232 of those bills, which is about 75% of them, opposing about 10 or 3% of them, and is watching 70 bills, 22% of them.

And of those, I but priority bills, I believe they're if they're, I have to go back and count them, but I believe that there are about 20 priority bills that are still pending as well.

And that's pretty much our data rule.

The other thing I will add is that some of the bills that we oppose have already been amended.

And some of the problematic provisions in them have been removed.

I'm happy to talk about those if those are of interest.

But the biggest prior uh the biggest priority bills that are the biggest bills that we still oppose that were problematic are things like skill games.

Uh that's still there as well.

So that's where we stand as we head to the governor's desk.

Um, and again, I'm happy to answer any questions on the remaining bills.

I guess one, it's good to hear that so many of the things that we had as priorities, you know, to move forward.

I guess one question I have is recognizing, you know, now that they've gabbled out for bills that were watch.

Do we need a different categorization for those?

Since I mean, I guess there's nothing to watch anymore.

I I'm just curious how we've handled this in in the past.

Um I can defer to Sarah on what we've done in the past.

I think they have remained watch even in sort of the postseason.

I don't think that we have changed that designation after words.

Sarah, has that been changed in the past?

I mean, I think bills that have every bill that is in the in the bosom of the governor for lack of a better phrase, um, has been given some sort of um uh active uh uh modifier, you know, if it was support, if it was oppose, if it was, you know, we decided there's no impact, we decided we don't actually care.

Um, but I don't think we we would continue to have we we used to, I don't think we ever continued to have watch um once it gets to amend um or veto or sign.

Um if they are if we are watching them because we are hoping for amendments or we are working towards amendments, I think that is a different designation.

Um, but I think it is, I think to the mayor's point, I think it would be um worth going through those bills that are still on watch, identifying why they're on watch, and then determining whether there's a a more appropriate modifier um for those pieces of legislation at this point.

Got it.

Mayor Gaskins, just for um reference last year, we did not change them.

Um, and we uh paid attention, and particularly where there were bills that were similarly um either drafted or in reintroduced this session to be mindful as comparison to the previous year's bill, and just as a notation for where we were, but that's just for reference from last year.

Thank you.

No, um, both are very helpful.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is it would be helpful for as we close out this session, if there are any that were on the watch that we're still like actively trying to change, just making sure we pull those up out of the list and we're really strategic in our final two to three weeks.

I'd say for other ones that are pretty much just done.

I think having some close out of the spreadsheets, whether that is, you know, we ultimately oppose, we ultimately said no.

In fact, because then we have that data going into the next year to do exactly what you just mentioned for.

Yeah, not Purdue, I'm sorry, Miss Pradeau to say um just so we can be tracking and kind of already starting to game plan next fall of like this was a problem this year.

These are the things we watch for.

These are the amendments we tried to get and did not get.

And then this is how we're gonna have a new strategy moving forward.

I also think this year, something I was noticing is there were like so many things on the watch level.

And I think we can only hold so many things at watch while we're also putting out so many other fires.

And so it might just be once we get through, completely get through this session, figuring out you know, what we might want to shift and adjust um for next year during the watch category and how we I mean there's watch, but there might be like a fire prioritization or tiering or something, just because that's a lot, that's a lot that is constantly changing to be holding.

So all that to say, I guess for me, it's what are the immediate ones that we're working on next week, and then what's the larger data strategy to begin to position us for next fall.

Um, absolutely.

Uh we are already going through all of those bills as well.

One of the things we were also doing is that a lot of the bills that were on watch ended up becoming some sort of work group.

Um, and uh we are already making sure that we are offering up our subject matter experts to participate in those work groups where those uh those are possible.

And that bill did not make it through the legislative assembly, but we have already offered up our um our techno technology folks to be helping figure out how that cybersecurity need can be met without um really increasing huge costs and putting a burden on the localities as well.

So um, those are the things that we are also doing, making sure that our experts are in the room on things where um it can be helpful to make sure that we're getting toward the policy goals that we know are the right policy goals.

Uh I don't know if there's any that I that's all I had on the agenda for tonight, unless there are other questions or if there's other needs from the legislative subcommittee.

Um, I will say that uh the only last thing I wanted to say, we already talked about that the governor has until 1159 p.m.

on April 13th to sign veto or amend legislation.

Um, then on April 22nd, the General Assembly comes back to reconvene to talk about those bills and take action on those if they want to take action in the aftermath of the the governor's decisions.

Um and then on April 23rd, the very next day uh is the budget considerations from the General Assembly as well.

So it's a very busy time because also April 21st is the last day for the referendum on um uh the mid-destrict mid mid-decade redistricting as well.

So that's a very busy time for the Commonwealth.

But um April 22nd and April 23rd are the General Assembly reconvenings.

Um I do not have any additional questions at this time.

I think this was a great um kind of just recap on where we are so far and what's left to do.

Um, Councilman Chapman, do you have any additional questions?

Uh no, I don't have any other additional questions, and just for transparency's sake, I did have um uh uh earlier conversation with Wendy earlier today, kind of going over the agenda, which is why all my questions got answered during that one, which is why I don't have any questions.

So I don't want to think I don't want folks to think about that attention.

So we're letting the public know you're an overachiever.

It's already your second legislative meeting today.

Thank you, thank you all.

This was great.

I guess just so folks know we do not have a meeting next week.

Um we'll have one final closeout meeting as we get close to those final dates, but we're hoping to give you all back several Fridays.

So thank you, everyone, for your time.

And with that, we'll adjourn at 6 p.m.

Thank you.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman Champion.

Thanks, Wendy.