Welcome everyone to the standing committee and governmental operations.

We were just waiting on quorum, but uh hopefully we'll achieve that soon.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

We will go ahead and get started with some of the portions we can do without uh quorum.

Madam Clerk, do you mind reading the um welcome notes?

Thank you.

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All questions are to be directed to the committee chair.

Thank you so much.

And I believe we're able to move forward with presentations.

Is that yes, Madam Chair?

That is wonderful.

Okay.

Um let's go to presentation number one.

Clean city commission annual report.

Thank you.

Mainly wanted to come to give you our annual report in person today because we are going through a bit of a transition.

If you're not familiar with the Clean City Commission, do I hit a button to change the slides?

Ah, clicker.

Perfect.

The Clean City Commission's been around a while, and if you're not familiar, this is the representation as we currently have it.

I do understand on the agenda today.

There are three other members uh potentially coming forward, which would take us to just one vacancy and that being the ninth district.

I do plan to attend some civic meetings in the 9th district and try to uh get some excitement and get somebody to volunteer to represent the 9th district so that we'll actually be uh at full capacity for the first time since I've been on the commission.

Um what the commission mainly is here to do is to advise you and the administration on all things recycling or anything that will beautify and better the city.

Um but in the last couple of years we've kind of gotten away from the recommending policy changes and doing more uh cleanup activities ourselves.

So it's been more of us doing the fishing rather than teaching people to fish.

And I think one of the things we're trying to do is refocus on to more of the policy side and less of the actual doing, but also encouraging communities to do more of that.

So one of the things we did this year was come up with what our priorities are for this year for calendar 2026.

And they are these four things.

As you probably all know, we do have a scourge of illegal dumping throughout the city.

And we're looking at what can we do to try and reduce that.

There's been some discussion with DPW about putting in cameras.

There's been discussion of trying to focus on uh repeat offender areas.

I know in Swansboro West, where I live in the 5th district, we had 15 tire dumps last year that had to be picked up.

And probably the biggest event we had was um uh in Southside was the um United Nations Church had 249 tires dumped one Saturday night um right before church service on Sunday.

And when they came in, it was quite a shock for them.

We need to find a way to reduce this uh illegal dumping and to uh go after those people who are doing it.

We also need to expand recycling in schools.

We're missing an incredible opportunity not only to increase the recycling, but also to teach the kids how to recycle.

And I've talked about this at a couple presentations I've done, and some people have corrected me and said that the uh that their school does do uh uh recycling.

And so when I went and talked to those schools, what I actually found it was a teacher or uh custodian who was taking it home and doing the recycling that way.

We need to be more consistent with that.

Um, third, uh, if you've ever been out to the Richmond Road, East End uh landfill, you know that there were piles and piles and piles of branches, sticks, logs, and everything that had accumulated from years and years.

Um we don't have a uh uh a sustainable recurring way to deal with that.

So as a Richmond tree steward as well, we generate a lot of branches because of climate change.

We're losing more trees than we ever have before, and we need a place to put them.

And we have that area and then also one on Maury Street, and they were filled to capacity.

Now, fortunately, DPW has found some money this year to start chipping those and and to start getting rid of those in preparation for the solar farm at uh East End.

But we can't just keep dealing with our debris on a when we can find the money basis.

We need to come up with a sustainable uh recurring way of dealing with what we know is going to come when we have 75,000 street trees in in the city of Richmond.

Um so we want to work with DPW to develop what a sustainable solution and bring it to council and the mayor for potential funding in the future, whether that's shipping or biochar or whatever.

And then finally, uh I'm here to say what we we do a lot of things really, really well in Richmond.

Um we have a really good home recycling program, we have a great composting program.

We need to expand those.

We need to build on what we've done well.

Um, instead of just the 20 sites, uh, we want to look at adding composting to schools.

Um, one of the teachers at Swansboro Elementary was telling me that it's frustrating to them that because uh 80% of the kids they were on free lunch, they have to give each kid everything: an apple, uh the entire tray of food.

And many of the kids say they don't want it.

And where does it end up?

In the trash can.

So we need to have a compost capability so that at least we can use get some value out of that.

Second of small business recycling.

Um we had our open house in October at Grammophone winery in the fourth district, and uh Arthur Grant, um, who is the owner there, uh, told the story that he wants to do recycling.

Here's a winery that's opening bottles and just throwing them in the trash.

And the reason is um, in order for him to get recycling, he has to contract with somebody at about 200 a month.

And he said, I'd gladly pay that.

The problem is it's a dumpster, and I need to have a concrete pad for that.

And because I'm so close to uh West Over Hills Boulevard, I need to have an enclosure, which means I'm gonna lose three parking spaces, plus it's gonna cost me tens of thousands of dollars to have this constructed.

He said, I don't generate that much.

If I could just have one of those rolling trash cans like we have for the residences, he said that would be perfectly adequate.

Interestingly, the uh CVWMA recycling truck already goes down his alley because there are residents right behind him.

So all it would take is finding a way to get him a can, let him pay for it, and uh you know, we would be able to add some small business recycling and get some benefit from that.

Interestingly, he takes all of his recycling home to do, but he lives in Chesterfield that doesn't recycle glass, so the glass bottles still end up going in the trash can.

And then finally, multi-resid uh family residential.

We have we are adding apartment complexes, handover fish uh throughout uh the city of Richmond, especially in Southside.

And we need to require some capability to do the multifamily um recycling uh capability.

But as I said, we also do do cleanups.

We are trying to work um with the community groups uh to and uh other organizations to try and organize.

Uh we have a proposal, in fact, the Clean City Commission meeting tonight.

We have a proposal from the um uh Richmond Tool Bank that they want to declare April as Richmond Shines Month, and they'd like to partner with us to do events throughout the city throughout the entire month that uh they'll coordinate the giving out of the bags and the um pickers and things like that.

And we think those are the types of uh programs that'll really benefit the city and showing people that we care and that we're out there doing those cleanups, and it's something that we can uh replicate and and continue moving forward.

We also do public awareness.

Uh we try to table at the farmers markets.

Um, we give out reusable bags and reusable water bottles, and what we find is a lot of people don't realize what um capabilities they have.

We've run into a lot of people, and I know in my own neighborhood in Swansboro West, that don't have recycling trash cans.

And when we ask them why, they said, well, there wasn't one here when I moved in, and they don't even know that they can just put in a request to 311.

So we want to get more education out there for people to know what do you do when somebody fills a recycle bin with trash?

How do you get it emptied?

You get the oops sticker on it, but how do you then get more people there?

Um we do have our annual recycling events.

Um we do three out at uh uh Robin Hood Road.

Uh, we do realize that we're gonna lose that space here in the next year or so with the Diamond District uh project.

Um, but they have been very successful in getting um electronics and uh material like that off of the uh uh getting them recycled and not getting illegally dumped.

And then we also have our adopt a spot program, which um right now we're only have a few communities that are taking advantage of it.

The two primaries are uh Brooklyn Park, which is we're done by the North Barton uh neighborhood association and Swansboro West.

But we're looking to onboard more people to either adopt an entire neighborhood or to adopt a um a specific spot.

And finally, there's my contact information.

I'd be happy to answer any questions and any feedback that the individual council members have or this committee has uh to steer us.

We are looking, kind of trying to find our way as to what it is we really want to focus on.

Um, like I said, illegal dumping kind of smacked us in the face with those 249 tires at United Nations Church.

Um but uh any input or direction that the uh council would like to provide, we're happy to receive it.

Wonderful, and thank you so much.

And I love everything you presented.

Uh obviously there's some crossover with other boards and commissions.

Do you guys ever collaborate together?

I'm just thinking particularly about uh composting and recycling and the sustainability committee commission.

Uh I attend all the sustainability committee meetings.

Um I also go to urban forestry because uh there is a definite benefit to trees um that impacts the clean city mission as well.

Um and I do work and talk often with uh Laura Thomas, the director for the Office of Sustainability.

Um we are still trying to figure out exactly with the uh bag tax where the lines are between because quite frankly, when I read uh law that says how that money can be spent, I focused on oh, that sounds exactly like the Clean City Commission, and I started calling it my money, um, which Laura Thomas quickly corrected me and said, No, it was her money.

Um, but those are things that we're still trying to work out and discuss.

Got it.

Ums Augbacher, I know I'm sorry, we had to get started because we weren't sure when our um third member was going to be able to attend.

But did did you have any questions for commission?

All right.

Well, I just want to thank you so much for everything you you do.

I I love the trash pickup slide.

I think I recognize that person.

And it really is a wonderful for anyone listening.

It's a great way to get to know your neighbors more, get to know each block of your your community better.

And direct action is just so satisfying.

So definitely would love to continue participating with those cleanups.

Um make sure I guess you're checking in with the rest of council members about the activities that are happening in their districts.

And to your question of sort of looking for that focus.

I feel like when I've participated on boards commissions and when I've talked to other chairs, inevitably the things that's most successful are the things that you are personally interested in, because you're the one spending your personal time on this.

And so where you can get the energy of of the makeup of that commission at that moment, I think ends up bearing the most fruit.

But um, I appreciate you bringing sort of that topic forward, but I would make sure it's something that you guys are invested in because you're the ones who are gonna be out there and need to be engaged with it.

So thank you again for coming.

And I'm sorry it took this long to get you into chambers, but keep up the great work.

Really grateful for everything you and your committee does does.

So please thank them for us.

I will.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are they available to come forward?

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Douglas Granat.

I'm the deputy director in charge of strategy and cybersecurity here in the city of Richmond.

I want to thank you, Chair Jordan, members of council, Director Todd, and the administration for the opportunity to discuss this in the public forum.

A lot of our pure localities don't take this proactive approach to cybersecurity.

The vision tends to be a few guys in the basement, security operations center, picking through network packets, looking at threats, maybe providing some advice to executives.

Here in the city, that conversation takes place on an ongoing basis at all levels within the administration and with council.

Today I hope to inform you on what cybersecurity encompasses here in City Hall, what it will in the future, what it is in the technical marketplace overall.

After all, we're one entity within the billions of IP addresses within the world.

And we have to take that into consideration.

We can't operate within our own bubble or own sphere of influence.

We have to be aware of others in the in the uh virtual battlefield we find ourselves on.

And it truly is that.

Some of the information we'll be sharing today is observations from uh other localities from the federal government and our own observations.

I hope to walk you through what it really looks like in our day to day, uh, what trends look like, maybe not those within uh the city's uh own operations, but in others as well.

Um, and we have to be really cautious.

Uh, some of our uh what we can discuss today could go into exposing our tactics, our techniques, our procedures, our TTPs.

Um, and that can't be discussed in a public forum.

So we're always happy to work with this body with the administration in appropriate closed sessions.

Um so when we get into our discussions as we uh cross that bridge, I just want to make you all aware of that.

Um, historically, cybersecurity remain focused on very technical details, um, architectural review processes, uh, litany of controls mapped to assurance levels, um, occasional reporting or incident response, and those are critical to operations.

Uh I think we're missing a slide.

There we go.

Um, but these times are shifting.

Um, the focus is now on ongoing risk management, uh protecting sensitive data while maintaining access to it.

Data is everything within this organization.

Um regulatory compliance, there's an ever-changing landscape out there on the federal level on the state level.

Um, there's a lot of proposed legislation, even in the current session that will drastically impact the city's ability to not only secure its data, but even use its data.

Um, maintaining continuity of services and operations is within the security portfolio and collaboration and efficiency.

Uh when we have security events, it's not isolated to a single system.

Uh, these events are significant, can uh impact the city's own image.

It can impact pure localities, and pure localities can impact us.

So the totality of cybersecurity is not what it used to be.

It can't just be me and another guy downstairs.

Um, it has to be evolving on an ongoing basis.

Um, in today's presentation, I hope to illustrate some of the various challenges uh towards modern governmental cybersecurity landscape.

Again, this is uh within the entire marketplace, not just limited to the city, but we'll share with you some specific details as well.

Um, in those areas, I want to focus on closing the cyber skills gap, uh, emerging technologies, which is pretty much the focus of our operations these days, uh, changing regulatory requirements, uh, dependencies on supply chains that originate with our adversaries, um cybercrime sophistication and its improvements over time with the evolving technology that we see, and even geopolitical tensions when we see something changing across the world, uh, whether that be nation state or isolated to uh a civil war somewhere across the world, it actually impacts our posture.

There's a lot of information on this slide.

Um, hopefully it's digestible.

Uh, this comes from our uh trusted source at Gardner.

Um, and what it represents is the frequency that the industry is observing of threats against our ability to defend against them.

Things that are in the upper right corner have an advantage to the attacker.

Things in the left side, the advantage is on the defense.

We have those tools, they're mature.

There are practices to safeguard against them.

It doesn't always tell us exactly what's happening within our networks, but it helps us prepare for what's coming next.

Uh, helps us anticipate where we need to be in three years, in five years.

A lot of the changes that would take place in order to safeguard ourselves from these threats are not a turn-on situation.

You can't check a box on a tool and say safeguard us from deep fakes.

Um what you can do is put all those tools in place, the staff behind them, and make the users aware in advance to say these things are coming, have these discussions, have them frequently, um, not only just with our user community, but even with the public.

Um, one of those examples of some of the more sophisticated techniques is uh a simple one that came out out of uh California, I think.

Um public forum uh is put out there, electronic feedback is solicited uh from the community, and none of those voices could be heard.

Democracy gets killed because bots, simple botnets, um, empowered with AI.

Um, and what we're observing is not traditional techniques simply enhanced by AI.

Those are easy.

There's frameworks out there that can defeat these things.

It's just done at a faster pace, and we think we just need to move faster.

There's actually more approaches.

Our attack surface has broadened exponentially just in the past two years.

So, what are we actually seeing in the city?

Um, we do routinely record every single incident that takes place.

Um, we review every single one on a 24 by seven basis.

Um, what we see are nation-state sponsored exploitation or attempts at exploitation.

Um, this is by and large the largest risk to the city.

Um, not only our city, but pure localities as well.

I'm sorry, can we just pause for a moment?

Can you define what that is for everyone?

Thanks.

Uh, nation-state sponsored um is those coming from other countries uh originating from adversaries such as Iran, such as uh Russia, China, North Korea.

Um, those are nation-state actors.

They have the backing of a government operation.

Um, what's a little different there is historically cybercrime took place and had the largest impact on most localities.

Ransomware.

Everyone knows what ransomware is, and we do see attempts at that.

That typically originates from commoditized code that some criminal organization builds out.

What about when nation states partner with those criminal organizations?

And that's what we're observing, is we're seeing those uh original hooks, if you will, from a uh criminal syndicate that just sends a phishing email to a target uh targeting an individual.

Um, any one of us here in government can be targeted, myself included.

And once someone engages with that, that information is then sold, or it's proxied through another organization, and tracking these proxies has become the larger challenge.

Um, we still see traditional fishing account takeover.

These are still threats that we have to be poised to defend, and we have to do it better because our focus needs to be on emerging technologies.

Um, how do we do it?

Um, effectively, the city leverages the same technology the bad actors are.

Only we're trying to get ahead of those attacks.

By having detailed knowledge of the technology employed, primarily Gen AI, large language model, machine learning, and implementing it ourselves, training our staff to recognize it.

We're able to get in front of those back bad actors and take advantage of their weaknesses.

Historically in cybersecurity, it's always been identify your weakness and cover it.

What we can do now is look for the bad actors' weaknesses, defend against their strengths, and then prepare to report out where they've failed.

And when we do that, especially amongst other localities, amongst other government agencies and even the private industry, we're seeing a lot more success in that arena.

This kind of comes down to what is the most uh terrifying trend in the industry.

Uh I'll stress on the industry, not so much in the city, is that although we can have as many technology technological tools as possible, we can have the best and greatest out there.

It comes down to the people behind it.

There is no adaptive security appliance like the human brain.

Um, most organizations, and even more so in localities and in other government organizations, struggle to locate talented individuals to staff their their um cyber divisions, uh, the majority of which 65%, as this slide indicates, have unfilled vacancies.

The city has one.

Um that they're unable to fill, they're unable to cross-train, they're unable to leverage the skills of folks in the arena.

It's very competitive, but also there's a growing skills gap.

There's very few folks that have both focused on cybersecurity as well as emerging technologies.

When you can bridge those two together, those are the talented folks we're after.

The city's very thankful for the fact that the administration and council in my entire tenure here at the city has supported cybersecurity first.

Since 2022, we've grown from a dedicated team of three to a team of seven, including very talented uh individuals from the DOD, from academia.

We also cross-trained staff.

Some of our staff and our dedicated team originated in engineering, and that speaks to the ability to grow a skill in traditional technology and implement it for cybersecurity, and vice versa.

One of the other things we've done is we've streamlined what we call our shared operational model.

So although we have seven dedicated uh team members to cybersecurity, every employee in the city here is aware that during an incident, you may play a role.

There may be someone contacting you saying we need you to do X, Y, and Z.

I believe we've even had communication between our director and members of council saying we need to talk to you about something.

And we appreciate that partnership.

We partner both internally and externally with many different agencies.

Um the abilities that we get using centralized security operations with a shared operations model is exponential.

Um it also allowed us to proactively ingrain our security team uh with our AI governance.

Um, one thing that the city is doing differently is we have not fragmented our investigation into emerging technologies, right?

Large language models, machine learning have been around for many years, but they're really gaining mainstream momentum.

A lot of localities are adopting those first and securing them second.

That's in my opinion, a mistake.

Uh, what we're doing is we're actually putting security, the city attorney's office, other agencies within the city within our AI governance board through administrative regulation 2.13, and making sure that we're making the decisions in advance of technologies being introduced so we can defend them in real time.

So, lastly, I I speak kind of and put a bleak outlook on the use of technology, right?

Can we just turn it off and make sure that we secure everything?

And that's not really the truth here.

Um, what we need to do is exercise caution.

Um, take a balance of innovation, right?

Get the technologies out there while you're securing them and you're aware of their risk.

Again, it comes down to risk management.

They we will never have a zero-level risk.

As much as much of my leadership would uh would argue with me is you cannot get there.

Um but what you can do is manage that risk effectively and be prepared to respond.

I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you so much, um, colleagues.

Sure, thank you for this presentation and for uh all that you are doing to keep us as secure as possible.

Um I'm particularly interested in um the threats around deep fakes and AI because I just um worked on this in my other job.

Um are you guys working with the communications department to ensure that there's both the operational response to an AI, like a confirmed AI deep fake and sort of the uh the reputational harm and communications response.

Like, are those things going hand in hand?

I I wouldn't so much say hand in hand and directly with that agency because we work with all the agencies.

Um we are partnered with the FBI Cybercrime Division here in Richmond, um, which would be the arm to exercise control over such activity.

Um, but then that's where our shared operations model comes in is when it's recognized, it would likely be recognized through automation and provide the the proper guidance to reduce the impact of image damage.

Um, so again, it's a balance between preparation, having the right partnerships in place and knowing the immediate path to respond to that, um, and then do it dealing with the damage control afterwards.

So I hope that answers your question.

It's not it's not directly with OSC, but that is one of the partner organizations.

Yeah, yeah.

I would think that eventually we want OS, and I think it's maybe maybe a more OSC question, but ensuring that they have, you know, a robust plan that has been at least vetted by your office around the the communications response to that, because I think that that's a critical piece of it.

Um my last question is sort of, you know, and I know that some of this has to be discussed privately, but um are all of our like resiliency plans for critical infrastructure, you know, how frequently are those being updated and tested and just knowing that we're we're always worried about our our water and gas infrastructure.

Okay.

Uh if you don't mind, I'm gonna break that down a few different ways.

Is so resiliency of any system is addressed at every single juncture that that system is touched by our department.

Um so when any system comes through our governance process, we review resiliency as a key component.

Um, can you continue operations without that system?

Right, question one.

Can you recover that system and its important data behind it in a reasonable time frame within the continuity plan?

That happens at least annually as far as continuity plans go overall on IT operations.

Um, so that's to say that every single year, DID goes through and looks at this continuity plan and looks at every single critical system.

Do we have the necessary means to recover that in the event of a disaster?

What's our means of continuity and advising the agencies uh that would be impacted by that as well as the administration on here's how you need to be prepared for such an activity.

Um, specifically to critical infrastructure, we have a direct partnership with that leadership.

We meet on a weekly basis to ensure that we're not only securing the environment, but we're also resilient in that environment as well.

If I had to put it out there, it is one of the concerns I always get asked this question in every single one of these discussions.

What keeps me up at night?

Our critical infrastructure does.

Not because it's at risk, but because it is the number one target of every bad actor out there.

Sure.

I would assume every municipality that would be their number one.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you very much.

You're welcome.

I think you just had a couple.

Um I agree.

I mean AI, all the emergent technologies, it's it's hard to keep um abreast of what's happening.

And so often you're reading about uh if you're lucky, you're reading about the bad applications of it for no localities that you can then say, we're not gonna have that happen here.

Um, but you know, particularly I think for our roles on on council when it comes to mine um a recent article about a locality, and I think it was in California, where AI had been used to generate overwhelming amount of public comment.

And just the increased burden it is to try and sift through what is the genuine public comment, what is um machine learning initiated, but this is not my area of expertise.

And so I'm extremely grateful to hear that you feel like we have a robust um staff here.

I'm sure that like all our departments, you would rather be larger and only one vacancy that's uh encouraging.

Where are we on filling that position?

Uh it's in flight right now.

We just finished a round of interviews.

I will admit that in the in the uh greater marketplace, it is difficult to find.

We had one candidate who was qualified, and unfortunately it didn't work out, so we've just re-advertised that one.

Um I'm encouraged.

Uh, we do partner through VCU, work with the intern programs.

Uh, we're actually working on a program now to get out to the Richmond community through the libraries and a grant from the state to be able to build the pipeline, if you will, and always have talent coming in to the cybersecurity pool.

Um, it doesn't have a vacancy is always something we want to fill, but because of that shared operations model, I I can think of no less than 20 colleagues in my office that their day-to-day is in cybersecurity, but any one of them can step into that role and fill it when it's necessary.

In fact, we have done it.

I hope that answers your question.

Yeah, no, thank you.

And thank you for everything that you and your team do to protect our information.

Um, because you're not just protecting the information within this building or this institution, but it's our residence information at the end of the day.

So um, thank you again.

We appreciate you putting this report together.

I believe you had one audit item to uh yes, the city has just one outstanding audit item.

We closed four in fiscal year uh between 25 and 26 uh as we follow.

This one just recently uh hit uh DIT, I think in January or December.

Um that's in progress.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, can we move to our capital maintenance program presentation, please?

Good afternoon.

I am Gail Johnson, the director of general services.

Um, and I have my two brain children behind the facilities and keeping our maintenance of all of our facilities.

Kenny Hill, who is our operations manager and facilities and Lacey Solomon, who is really overseeing our CIP infrastructure systems, so that we'll make sure we're on track with what we're doing.

Come before you again today to give you just some update on some of our capital maintenance that we've got going.

Yeah.

So today we'll provide an overview of the Department of General Services to include a list of the facilities that we maintain in the facility index score.

Just so that everyone is aware, I've included the list of the facilities that DGS maintained.

We do not maintain rec and park recks and parks facilities, nor do we maintain the DPU facilities.

We'll review the an estimated totals of the deferred maintenance costs through FY26.

We'll identify the top facilities by the deferred maintenance needs, an overview of the generalized capital maintenance program for FY26, and then a review of the DGS's operating budget that's related to the general maintenance of the facilities, not the capital, just your general maintenance.

So just a quick overview.

It included parking, special capital projects, fleet and real estate, and FY2, and that was that was done to enhance the responsiveness and the services that we provide.

We expanded that to standardize our maintenance within the facilities and to ensure safety of employees and the visitors to our facilities by adding the facilities department into general into general services.

I have fleet maintenance that has 53 internal service funded employees, our special capital projects, which are the the which is the area of general maintenance that does our vertical construction.

They've got four employees, three of them are general funded.

The other one is through special fund funding, and then I've got 50 in our security and facilities group that seven of them are funded through our special fund to maintain our main street station facility.

The rest are general funded.

So I know there was a question about all of them not being funded in the general fund, they are not.

We've graphed the facilities index over the deferred, excuse me, the deferred maintenance costs over a time period, and just using some of the funding examples.

If we were right now, if we were to stop funding in our deferred maintenance, we would outpass 15 years, still have divested properties that we're working out of and maintaining or trying to maintain.

This model shows that it would take about 50 to 60 million dollar investment per year to at year four even get us down to a hundred thousand dollar.

I mean a hundred thousand dollar deferred maintenance costs, and that's taking us from that 251 that we just looked at.

With that same investment, we would have our facilities in a fair to good range in about five to six years, but again, we're talking at 50 to 60 million dollar investment per year.

We talk about the three critical buildings that we're keeping keeping running, is our city hall John Washer Course building in the main library.

These three buildings alone make up 60 percent of the deferred maintenance cost.

So that gives you an idea of what we're looking at, and that and again, each of these facilities are in poor or worse conditions based on the facility condition index scores.

We do have the generalized capital maintenance fund that is 16 about 16.1 million dollars.

That fund is divided between general services, recreation and parks, and FY26, there was funding put in for the Richmond Animal Care and Control Hospital.

So we get 9.4 of that to maintain all of the facilities' capital needs.

Recreation and park approximately 5 million, and the 1.5 million that went to the animal care and control.

So you're you're looking at the 10 million compared to the 50 or 60 that's needed.

Here's a list of the projects included in the FY26 deferred maintenance.

Um I'm sorry, the capital generalized capital maintenance bucket.

Um, all of these projects have either been completed or still in progress.

So we're we're moving along, we're spending the dollars as set aside, taking care of the the needs of our facilities the best we can.

Any questions?

Thank you.

I imagine we will have a few questions just a minute.

And I've attached to your packet because the list that shows each of the departments along with the individual facility score, just would have looked crazy on the slide.

So I just attached that.

Um we summed it up to the point four.

Um thank you.

So any questions, colleagues?

Council Member Gibson.

Thank you.

Um just was curious, you had mentioned the question about the various positions being funded through not all on the general fund.

Can you just walk through what the other funds are that um that fund?

It looks like the so our parking is the enterprise fund, and the revenue they collect is what takes care of that the operations of that parking division.

The fleet is internal service, so everything that fleet does is billed back to the agencies that they're doing the work for main street station has a special fund dedicated for the maintenance and upkeep of that main street station.

So to be clear, so the parking enterprise, those 12 are all funded through the enterprise fund because through the parking fees that are collected, you said correct.

And then can you explain once again what does that mean?

Internal service, how does that can you just clarify?

So that so fleet is an internal service, sort of like DIT, the work that fleet does is billed back to the using agency.

Okay, and then um uh the uh the special funds that fund both the capital projects and the uh facilities and securities management.

That's part of part of both of those is through our main street station special fund.

Okay, thank you.

So those those those dedicated workers to Main Street Station.

A few questions.

Um there's nine properties that are currently not used.

Is that is that um is that high, low in relation historically, like so that that would be a question when you look at our real estate list overall, but for general services having those facilities, um, keep in mind we just got rid of the we got the Coliseum sitting there that we still maintain, we just got rid of our public safety building.

So those are properties that normally we would not have had, they would have or they would have been occupied and we would have still maintained them, but it comes with a whole other maintenance concern when they become vacant, um, and you got another security concern that's built on top of that.

Is one of those now Arthur Ash?

Yes, okay.

Um is there is part of any of this planning, like looking at those um unoccupied or vacant buildings and determining whether we would like when when we sell those or we offload them, where does that revenue go?

Does it go back into DGS for additional maintenance in support of buildings that are occupied?

So that that would be a question for our finance area.

I've been working with for the economic development team on what we're doing with and the plans for these vacant facilities, but once they sell again as the DEC side of the house.

Okay.

Um and then Main Street station having its own, that makes sense that it has its own fund.

Does the do the fees that are collected from Main Street station fully offset the annual maintenance of the building itself?

Well, the maintenance that we perform, yes.

Okay.

Probably not the maintenance that it needs, though.

That I again I can't answer that question.

Um I will say that that the facility, Main Street station itself, it's not in bad condition.

So we're you know, again, as things come up that needs to be done, we're able to to take care of those needs of those facilities at that facility.

Okay, yeah.

And everything that is collected stays with Main Street.

Yes.

Okay, yes.

Um, and then lastly, it you know, just kind of a bigger conversation.

But I know you know, we did this a year ago, and a big part of our conversation a year ago was around city center um and and the John Marshall Courts building and sort of reimagining um not just the courts building but city hall.

Um, you know, are there additional conversations happening around like is City Hall the best?

Like, is this 900 East Broad Street the best location for City Hall?

Is City Hall like at what point do we get to the like the maintenance of this building is not worth keeping this building and change like moving somewhere else that maybe is less valuable real estate and a part of that bigger city center package?

So as our teaming up with DEC and being part of the city center project and having the BAP grant, that is exactly what's being looked at as part of this whole project.

So we've got consultants on board now to start to look at just that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, Councilmember Gibson, did you have a follow-up?

Um thank you.

I think that's you know, it's kind of the million-dollar question or the $300 million question is you list here is about 150 million dollars in deferred maintenance for city hall.

Uh like the last time we saw in a presentation from DCO Stidel years back, the estimated cost of replacement was twice that.

So repla okay, this is deferred maintenance cost.

You're looking at the replacement cost.

I know the point I'm trying to make is like if deferred maintenance may seem like a staggering number, but when we talk about having to rebuild from scratch, um, it's gonna be magnitudes of the deferred maintenance cost.

So um I'm with the background in the historic preservation.

I'm always thinking it's better to just keep investing and staying on top of the deferred maintenance if possible, and then trying to um initiate a new city hall.

But these are questions that your department's grappling with the administration, and obviously similar conversation happening about the John Marshall building, and there are other properties listed as divest on your presentation.

Are those properties that you're saying the city should I mean, are you literally saying divest that they should be surplused, or it's just no, that's that is just based on using that model.

Okay.

So when I look at just for an example, the homes you live in may be old homes from an age perspective because that's one of the factors that the that the assessment looks at.

But you've got renovated everything inside.

I would not say I'm gonna get rid of my old house just because that factor is put into it.

So this facility index score is just based on the model.

We've upgraded when you look at some of our fire stations.

We've upgraded some of our fire stations to without you know, without looking at the outside of it, that you could go inside and possibly think, hey, uh facility index score says it's poor, divest, but it's not really.

So we do as we maintain, we are department is looking at what really is the condition of this.

You know, the the bare bones are good.

We've updated all of the HVAC heating systems, we've renovated bathrooms, we've renovated kitchens.

So all of that does have to be considered.

Understood.

Thank you.

I do just have a follow-up question.

Thank you.

Um City Hall, and I'm not advocating one way or the other, but um, as a part of this facility's condition rating, is do we take into account the the overall occupancy of the building?

So, for example, in City Hall, I know, and I know in a lot of buildings and a lot of places, you know, post-COVID, they were at you know 40% occupancy.

So even though the the every floor might be occupied, only 40% of that floor is occupied at any given time because of work from home or teleworker or rotating schedules.

Is that something that we're taking into account in all of our office buildings that the city owns?

Like, is there opportunities to consolidate workforce and consolidate buildings?

That would not be part of the facility condition assessment.

That would be another analysis that would need to be done.

Who would who would uh spearhead that analysis?

I think it would have to be a team to include us as we look at space and space needs.

Um I'm not sure if it would just really solely be DGS, but I think it would definitely we would play a a very vital role in it because we're the department that knows the facilities.

We know we know who's where and then getting with our other departments to really identify what is what space do you really need?

Yeah.

Am I remembering that DCO Steidel did that report not too long ago?

He did a space study.

I want to say, and don't quote me, I think it was 20 that we did a space study.

It was after COVID.

Yeah, looking at some of the the facilities that we had and what really were space needs of all of our agencies.

Okay.

Well, I mean, the challenge obviously with those studies is they almost become out of date the next day because people are constantly shifting around.

But um, would it be possible?

And I don't know who to posit this question to, to get it a copy of that, and then an understanding of when it's if it's been updated, obviously the most updated copy, and then when we're anticipating it to be revisited, and then we can discuss um with our committee staff about maybe a potential future presentation on it.

I think that would be very helpful.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Oh, sorry, I think we had a couple of audit one.

We've got one our field card audit.

So we had nine recommendations.

Um, the audit team has set aside March the third to review all of our documentation and hope as a result of that reviewing, we are able to close all nine of them.

Okay, there should be a slap track somewhere.

Thank you all.

Thank you, and thank you to your staff.

Okay, Madam Clerk, we do not have papers for consideration.

We can move on to board vacancies.

And Ms.

Nichols, thank you for all the work you have done.

I know you've got some recommendations for us today.

Good afternoon, Pamela Nichols, Council Management Analysts.

The vacancy report before you this afternoon consists of current and projected vacancies through May of this year.

And diving right into the report, we're going to start with the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority.

There are three vacancy for alternate members, and we have an application from Zachary Pauly.

And then moving down to the city personnel board, there are four um projected vacancies for a city resident.

We received an application from Lacey Hancher, and you see noted on your report that she was recently appointed as an alternate member to the participatory budgeting steering commission.

I did speak directly with Ms.

Hanscher, and she said that she does feel that her experience will serve valuable to the board.

And then moving down to the Clean City Commission, of course, you all you know received that report.

We have a um one vacancy for a fourth district representative and Muslim Al has submitted his reappointment application, and then for the at-large corporation or community representative, there are three vacancies, and we have applications from Margie Langston, Alex Martin, and Austin Palmore, and we did receive support for Margie and Alex, as well as to consider Austin, but kind of question whether they would be able to provide great benefit to the commission.

And then as we move down to the public utilities and services commission, there are three vacancies.

But again, with those three vacancies, um, they support the reappointment and also Kirk Johnson for your consideration.

And then moving on to Sister Cities Commission.

Um, Madam Chair, it is my understanding that the council representative on this commission has requested for this committee to continue until your April 22nd meeting.

Okay.

Yes, that's confirmed.

Thank you.

And then for sustainability and resilience commission, um, for a city resident who demonstrates expertise in sustainability and equitable climate actions through professional volunteer efforts or experience.

Um, I was just recently informed that um the commission um expressed support for Sophia Dizell, but we also did receive applications from Elizabeth Favris, Leslie Four.

Again, you will see Lancy Hancher's name and Luke Peters.

And I also want to note that the report does reflect a recent mayor appointment of Brianne Fisher to the Sustainability and Resilience Commission.

And then moving down to the Urban Forestry Commission.

There are two vacancies.

Um we receive um support for Jelene Janine Lester reappointment.

Got it.

Thank you so much.

Well, I appreciate the groundwork that you've done to speak to our different boardings commissions because often they're the ones who know what skill sets they're trying to fill in for in parts of the city they're trying to reach most.

Um heard the request to continue Sister City Commission and colleagues.

Can I have a motion to move forward with the recommendations as so described?

Just just so I understand are the some that had multiple recommendations.

groundwork that you've done to speak to our different board and commissions because often they're the ones who know what skill sets they're trying to fill in for in parts of the city they're trying to reach most um hurt heard the request to continue sisters city commission and colleagues can I have a motion to move forward with the recommendations as so described just just so I understand are the some that had multiple recommendations are would they all be included in that yeah so with this would be moving forward just starting at the top um Zachary Pauley for Central City Personnel Board Lacey Hansure Clean City Commission um the reappointment of Al Misa and then moving forward Margie Langston and Alex Martin and then for public utilities and services commission uh reappointments of Andrew Grisby Tracy Thayer and um new appointee Kirk Johnson and then switching to the next page we have um sister cities commission will be continued sustainability resilience commission would be Sophia Delzell and um urban forestry commission the reappointments Wood Clements Mary Elfner and Janine Lester would be the block we would be voting on yes and and Madam Chair if I may that will leave one vacancy for clean city and that would be continued into your April meeting.

Thank you for clarifying that okay I make a motion to adopt this uh slate of board members as proposed second the committee is voting on the motion to forward the board's appointments and reappointments recommendations to council for approval as stated and to continue consideration of applications for appointments to of the sister cities commission to the next committee meeting which is April 22nd 2026.

Ms.

Gibson yes Chair Abubacher aye chair aye that motion has been approved thank you so much and please thank everyone who applied for these uh positions and if you didn't make it this time please go attend those commission meetings anyway they you will be um greatly valued and keep applying thanks and we definitely would convey that thank you okay I believe we have uh no discussion items for the day but a staff report thank you chair jordan will perkins staff for the committee um just wanted to note that again we recorded the request to follow up on the recent space needs study and and schedule that into our plans for committee presentations in the fall um and uh the next two meetings for this committee um coming up in March and April currently have no presentations scheduled as I will uh however I will note you have budget work sessions scheduled for the same time so that's part of why we we laid out um from having any schedule presentations for those time slots thank you got it um in consideration that general services overseas fleet and I think there had been a report on utilization of our fleet also and do we want to consider maybe folding that into the utilization space study conversation okay great um mr perkins did you get that you would like an update to the city's fleet needs as well um yes utilization report I think they were considering how much we were really using a fleet if we needed as many vehicles as we currently had they may have already moved through that work product but if you could just reach out and find out thank you okay with that I believe we are at the conclusion of our agenda and for those who were listening or we'll view this later as an empty room um we will not be having we will be because we're moving into budget season our next two regularly scheduled govs committee meetings are really probably going to be budget work sessions so we look forward to continuing our our conversations and report probably after budget unless something um urgent arises with that uh this committee meeting is adjourned