Loudoun County Board of Supervisors FY 2027 Budget Work Session - March 9, 2026
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors FY 2027 Budget Work Session - March 9, 2026
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors held a budget work session on March 9, 2026, to review and potentially amend the proposed FY 2027 budget. Key discussions included departmental resource requests from the Courts, Community Corrections, Fire and Rescue, and the Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and the Sidewalk and Trails Program. The board took votes on several motions, including a contentious debate over expanding School Resource Officers (SROs) to elementary schools.
Discussion Items
- Courts (Circuit Court): Chief Judge Douglas Fleming and Chief of Staff Alejandra Rueda presented on the 20th Judicial Circuit being the most underjudged in Virginia (1 judge per 103,000 residents vs. state average of 1 per 50,000). They requested additional support staff (legal specialists and staff attorneys) to manage rising caseloads (e.g., daily orders processed increasing from 9,000 in FY22 to an estimated 14,000 in FY26). The board expressed support and offered to advocate for more judges at the state level.
- Community Corrections: Director Chip Sullivan requested three positions (one domestic violence officer and two hybrid pretrial/probation officers for a satellite office) to address high caseloads (e.g., domestic violence officers currently at 80, 74, and 94 cases vs. optimal 35). The board supported the request.
- Fire and Rescue: Chief Keith Williams detailed requests for 18 FTEs to address a staffing factor deficit of 54 positions, four-person engine staffing at four stations (Middleburg, Loudoun Heights, Lockets, Hamilton), four assistant fire marshal positions, and two revenue-neutral positions. The board supported the requests, noting the need to catch up on staffing after opening new stations.
- Sheriff’s Office: Sheriff Mike Chapman presented priority requests: additional training personnel and a four-year phased addition of SROs to elementary schools (citing a 1,000% increase in elementary school shootings nationally and rising call volumes from 500 to 1,500). He faced opposition from board members who argued the school board had not agreed to an MOU and that the proposal lacked community engagement with immigrant groups. A motion to remove the SRO funding ($5,317,409) was made by Chair Randall.
- Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and Sidewalk and Trails Program: The finance committee recommended adopting the FY27-32 CIP as amended, including reallocating funds from Belmont Ridge Road crossing to Partlow Road improvements. Staff sought policy clarifications on not swapping segments within the Sidewalk and Trails Program unless based on formal reevaluation. Several motions on corridor studies and project swaps were debated.
Key Outcomes
- SRO Elementary School Expansion: Motion by Chair Randall to remove SRO funding (Phase 1, $5,317,409) from the sheriff’s office budget passed 6-2-1 (Supervisors Kirshner and Umstadt opposed; Supervisor Laterno abstained).
- SRO Floater Group: Motion by Supervisor Laterno to add 5 SROs and 1 sergeant (approximately $2,379,000) to cover vacancies in middle and high schools passed 6-2-1 (Supervisors Brixman and Glass opposed; Supervisor Glass abstained? Exact tally: 6 ayes, 2 nays, 1 abstain).
- CIP Adoption: Motion by Supervisor Brixman to adopt the FY27-32 CIP as amended by the finance committee and full board, including sending planning funds for Southern Service Center ($500,000), Hillsboro Old Stone School ($120,000), and Lovettsville water tower ($308,000) to FY26 year-end fund balance discussion, passed 9-0.
- Smith Switch WOD Connector Swap: Motion to replace Smith Switch WOD connector project with Ashburn Village Boulevard Improvements (next priority) passed 9-0.
- Middleburg Project: Motion by Supervisor Crony to send $1.5 million for Middleburg South Madison Street improvements to fund balance was withdrawn after discussion.
- Corridor Studies Alignment: Motion by Supervisor Crony to align corridor study improvements with established STP/IIP criteria, as amended by Supervisor Sainz to include staff identification and ranking, passed 8-1.
- Route 15 Hogback Mountain Roundabout: Motion to rename and change scope to turn lanes was withdrawn; substitute motion to direct staff to analyze the intersection during FY28 budget development passed 8-1.
- Eastern Loudoun Library Planning: Motion to send $500,000 in planning funds to FY26 fund balance discussion passed 9-0.
Meeting Transcript
I did. I sent that to you this morning, though. Yeah. It's the same thing that I sent this morning, yeah. Well, good evening, supervisors, good evening, staff, and good evening, Loudoun. I'd like to call to order the March 9th, 2026, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors budget work session. I would like to stress the importance of this budget work session as the time for us to offer changes, additions, and deletions to the budget. Board members should try to offer all desired amendments and ask questions that you have during these work sessions. Please only offer motions that you intend to support so that we can be efficient with our limited time. So we had received some information from a board office. Um before you're excited. We are excited to continue with the budget process. Sure, let's go with that. Um before you is the tote board, which uh captures two straw votes that the board took at the end of the work session on Thursday. The tote board remains at the proposed tax rates with an available balance of 79,973. Also included in your packet, um, both one that was distributed on Friday as well as a supplemental uh packet distribution today are as follows. The latest um response packet for questions received related to the county budget as well as the Loudham County Public Schools. We still have some remaining county budget questions that staff is working through and intend to have those formally distributed as part of Wednesday's packet. In addition, we have item three, which is the finance committee's recommendations on the FY27 through FY32 capital improvement program. Um and we also have in the supplemental today an item on the Sidewalk and Trails program seeking the board's policy uh clarifications on a few items that have come up during uh budget deliberations. And we also distributed a memo which captures the motion that the school board adopted last Thursday related to school resource officers. And that concludes my update. Thank you very much. Supervisors, a couple things. Um, you will see that I did change the order of the uh departments coming before us tonight. I do think the sheriff's department tonight may take a little longer, and there's no reason to keep the other departments here that I believe will go um much more quickly, so I changed the order slightly. Um I will also say supervisors um I am putting us in a committee as a whole for 45 minutes after the sheriff does his presentation. We do not have to use all 45 minutes. That is not required. But I do not believe that these discussions have been I do not believe we've had a discussion yet. And they certainly haven't had discussions that are that are thoughtful um and that are probing and that has a chance to answer questions. And so I'm trying to do that tonight. And then after that, um motions, there are motions on the day is um there are a lot of motions on this day as tonight, supervisors. As I read through some of them, some of them are CIP motions, thus appropriate. Some of them are motions on items tonight, but some of them are motions that might be more appropriate for wrap-up. And I say that because we haven't finished with all the departments yet. We haven't yet talked about the the anything uh in our nonprofits. Um I do not know, Mr. Hempstreet, is the public um uh defender coming in. Um, I don't know if that's happening. So it it it is it is too early for some of these motions. Some of them should be here should are more appropriate for wrap-up. And so, and so if I don't allow your motion tonight, it's not because I'm not allowing your motion. I just think the motion is better suited for wrap-up. So just please know that um in advance. Okay, I think they're all all fine, but they just belong where they belong with some belonging wrap-up. I think that's all I have. I am so pleased to that we start tonight with the courts. I'm going to ask um uh judge the chief judge, Judge Douglas Lemming, um, and Chief Chief Judge Alex Ruta, Alexandra Ruda, to come to the table, please. Uh, you two are the you're the courts are our courts up first tonight.
openpublica.com