Good afternoon, everyone.

The Richmond City Council budget work session will now come to order.

Madam Clerk, if you would provide the chamber emergency evacuation plan announcement.

Upon activation of the emergency and law signal, all persons should immediately exit the building.

Please use the exits to the left, right, or front of the council chamber, or the east and west stairwell outside the rear doors of the chamber.

Oh that's not it.

That's it.

Not quite that one, Madam Clerk.

Mr.

Warren, if you would provide an overview of the protocol for the work session, please.

A large portfolio.

The full 20 minutes we're giving to Mr.

Wiggins to present on operations.

However, when we go around and you have your five minutes to ask questions, you can ask questions to either of them at that time.

Uh to the mayor's chief of staff regarding the mayor's portfolio or Mr.

Wiggins regarding the operations.

The only thing I would ask is if you have several questions, uh, let's say for Mr.

Wiggins, you ask his first, and then uh for their uh Ms.

We justoria, you ask her second just to prevent people them having to jump up and down.

Um we are going to uh I go for a second round today of questions for five minutes uh as stated in SOPs.

I just asked when we get to that second round to try to be as concise and quick as you can uh out of respect for the for the day and the and the work of staff needs to do.

And um once again, please pay attention in the SOPs.

We have listed the predetermined order of questions so you all know where you're at on there.

And um I believe uh that is it.

I need to share with you just to find the reminder that um I've uh informed y'all a few times, but just uh while I got the microphone amendments are due two weeks from yesterday uh regarding this budget.

I will be available after this if you want to discuss that uh in further detail.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Warren.

With that, welcome DCAO Wiggins.

Well, good afternoon, President Noble, Vice President Jordan, and the stained members of the council.

I hear a little reverb.

Can you all hear me clearly?

Well, I appreciate the opportunity to present the proposed FY27 budget for the operations portfolio on behalf of Meravula and CAO Donnell.

I've now been with the city for nearly six months, and during that time I've had the opportunity to engage with many of you.

I look forward to continuing continuing those conversations and to build building relationships with those council members that I have not yet had the chance to connect with.

I'm especially excited to oversee the operations portfolio as it closely reflects my professional experience over the past 23 years in both county and city government.

This work is deeply aligned with my background and delivering core services and managing complex high impact operations.

During my time here, I've had the opportunity to work closely with our department leaders.

I want to acknowledge that they have been incredibly welcoming and helpful as I've transitioned into this role.

Have also been genuinely impressed by their knowledge, professionalism, and commitment to service.

After 23 years in public service, I do not say that lightly.

These are leaders and professionals whose experience and expertise are highly sought after in their field, and we are fortunate to have them serving our city.

I am proud to stand firmly behind the work of these teams.

They deliver critical services to our residents every day, often under challenging conditions, and they do so with professionalism, dedication, and a strong sense of public service.

Given both the limited time that we have today and the breadth of the departments within this portfolio, I will be providing a very high-level overview that focuses on key priorities, major investments, and overall service impacts.

The operations portfolio encompasses many of the city's most essential and visible services.

It provides strategic oversight of public safety, infrastructure, and core service delivery, ensuring that residents receive reliable, efficient services, and that we maintain a high performing city.

I often think of the operation team as the Navy SEALs of the city.

And as the last time you will ever hear me make a Navy Navy analogy, as I am an Air Force man.

So I want you to just think about the portfolio as a whole, and the reason I refer to them as the Navy SEALs is that we rely on them to handle the most critical situations, and oftentimes while we're in our bed sleeping comfortably where we're in front of our television watching our favorite program.

Thank you.

So for FY27, the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities were transitioning to the operations portfolio.

Positioning the city to build on its sustained national performance gains over time, the park system has advanced from number 58 to number 16.

That's very significant.

And this is in a national top 10 100 rankings, reflecting enhanced programming and amenities.

Aligning parks with operations will sustain this upper trajectory by integrating maintenance functions, strengthening capital, project execution, and expanding the city's green space footprint.

This proximity to core operational resources will enhance coordination, reduce duplication, and strategically deploy investments that directly improve scoring metrics within the national ranking framework.

This portfolio includes a wide range of departments, as the chief of staff just mentioned to you earlier today.

And together with these agencies from the backbone of city operations, protecting public safety, maintaining critical infrastructure, and enhancing quality of life across our community.

Following the presentation, I will address any questions from the council.

If needed, I will engage the appropriate department head for technical and detailed inquiries to ensure that you receive a thorough response.

With that, I'll move into a high-level overview of the proposed FY27 budget.

Okay, we'll start off by just giving you a quick overview of our mission.

Our mission is simple.

We provide strategic oversight of public safety, infrastructure, and core services, including parks and recreation to ensure reliable, efficient services in a high performing city.

We always like to begin every discussion with our Merrill Pillars, which is the framework for how we operate, prioritize, and measure success.

And you'll see those seven pillars reflected here.

Again, this is going to be a very high-level overview.

I would like to reserve some time for questions, but I'll hit the high points.

This is not an all-encompassing report of all of the major accomplishments of this operations portfolio, but again, just for the sake of time, this would be a very high-level presentation.

I would like to highlight that RFD graduated two recruit classes, achieving full-time staffing and eliminating years of long vacancies.

This is important.

This is something that happened under Chief Siegel's watch, and this is uh a very difficult task to perform.

He was able to recruit not only new recruits who are newly entering uh the fire services career field, he was able to successfully recruit uh seasoned firefighters from other jurisdictions.

Says a lot about his leadership.

Um, also with recruiting those uh additional candidates that uh have eventually come on as full-time employees, it has been very helpful in reducing overtime.

Would also like to highlight that DPW achieved the six consecutive reaccreditation from the American Public Works Association and DC D CPR completed a citywide integrated preparedness plan following the launch of the multi-agency coordination center.

They have also completed several upgrades to our 911 phone system and our computer-aided dispatch, also known as our CAD system.

Moving on to our thriving neighborhoods category, you'll see that RPD that shootings are down to a 10-year low.

Homicides are down to a seven-year low with an 80% clearance rate.

They also maintain Khalil Gold status and DGCS certification.

Rape is down 30%, robberies are down 11%, and property crimes are down 14%.

Again, this is just a snapshot of the great work that's being done by Chief Edwards.

Should time allow, I would ask him to come up to give you a little bit more details about the work that he's doing with his team.

Also would like to mention that RFD opened two fire stations, station 12 and 21.

This helped to increase response capacity and to improve overall city coverage.

I think it's also important to mention that they achieved a 56.6 arson clearance rate.

Doesn't sound impressive until you consider the national average is about 28.1%.

So they have doubled the national average in that particular category.

Moving on to thriving neighborhoods, um, DPW has a litany of accomplishments, and I'll just rattle off a few here.

Um they've been able to pave 165 miles.

I'd like to pause right there.

I've been very impressed since coming on board with the City of Richmond with the condition of our roads.

Again, I've been in this business for 23 years.

Much of that has been focused in the area of public works, and I have been beyond impressed with the pavement condition index and the condition of our streets.

I would rival our public works department and our road resurfacing team with anyone in this country.

We've also repaired 132 blocks of sidewalks.

We've graded 816 gravel alleys.

We've installed 39 speed tables, 638 ADA ramps, over 10,000 potholes, and we completed over 2300 LED streetlight conversions.

Moving on to Thriving Families, we've delivered 49,000 meals to youth across 16 sites in partnership with the USDA Summer Food Program.

Under our Thriving Economy category, we've activated Bryan Park as a regional economic and community hub, hosting the RVA big market with 100 plus vendors and over 4,000 weekly visitors, excuse me.

DPW has successfully issued over 1,700 work and street permits, which is a sign of the many construction project projects in our great city.

Under our thriving inclusive communities category, RFD graduated a recruit class with the highest percentage of female firefighters in the department's history, 59%, which is very impressive and difficult to do.

Moving on to our thriving and sustainable built environment, DGS was able to sustain infrastructure through Fire Station 12.

They earned the Fierra Honor Award, the APWA Mid-Atlantic Recognition, and Lee Gold Certification.

And so we're not only getting projects completed, those projects are being recognized by our peers and national organizations.

Moving on to our beloved Richmond Animal Care and Control Division, excuse me, department.

This department has over 50 positive news stories.

That's extremely difficult to do.

Okay, let's move on to the proposed budget.

As you'll see, uh Richmond Animal Control, their position, their staffing position is remaining flat.

You'll see a slight increase, um, a little bit over 80K, and this reflects internal promotions.

Um promotions and uh the reorganization of the department, excuse me.

You also see a $59,000 decrease in their operations budget.

Again, we're always trying to find ways to operate more efficiently, not letting cost being the determining factor over service delivery.

Um, we have to be able to chew gum and walk.

Um, but Richmond Animal Care and Controls has done a great job in decreasing their operating budget without sacrificing the quality of our services.

Moving on to the Richmond Fire Department, you'll see that there's just a slight increase in staffing.

Um, that's the the five additional staff members are not new employees necessarily.

This is just a technical adjustment with the five funded positions were uh funded through a grant program.

We're looking to bring those uh positions on board, which are the civilian fire inspectors.

Um, due to the success of them being able to complete several fire inspections, uh, these positions will be incorporated into their uh chart permanently.

You'll also see that they have been able to accomplish about uh $820,000 decrease in our operating budget by really focusing on the fleet management program.

This is directly related to an adjustment and our repair cycles, and uh this is again the end result.

Let's move on to the Richmond Police Department.

You'll see a $9 million increase, and we have about a head count, a little bit over 50 um uh personnel increases.

Um I will say that Chief Edwards has done a great job with working around a national challenge of recruiting sworn officers.

Um, if time permit again, I would like to bring them up to explain the strategy of hiring civilian personnel and reallocating work that is being performed by uh some of his sworn personnel and transferring those duties over to some of our civilian workers.

Much like the fire department, you'll see that he has five FTEs that are being transferred over to the Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

That's a strategic move, but it's not um the hiring or the acquisition of five additional FTEs.

This is just the transfer to another area of our city.

You'll see the operating budget increase a little bit over two million dollars.

This supports critical um equipment and agreements such as body warrant cameras, our records management system, and uh some of our equipment leases.

I would also like to highlight that uh RPD was able to get a little bit more than eight million dollars in grants and special funding.

All right, the ECPR, you'll see decreases across the board with the department.

They've worked very hard again to find uh cost savings without compromising service delivery.

You'll see that under the personnel budget item, there's nearly uh $600,000 decrease in that area, and you'll see across the operating budget, there's uh about a little bit over a quarter of a million dollars in decrease in their operating budget due to the reduction of a one-time expense, which was the construction and completion of our multi-agency coordinating center, also known as our emergency operations center.

Mr.

Wiggins, you have five minutes remaining.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll try to speed this up a little bit.

We have a little ways to go.

Um, again, you'll see the highlights here with Department of General Services, the slight increase in their personnel budget.

Um about three FTEs have been added to that department.

Um again, this is uh a big part of their operating budget increase was due to the renegotiation of the janitorial and security contracts as uh you all are aware of the efforts behind uh getting our contractors a competitive salary.

Okay, so moving on to Department of Parks Recreation, and you'll see a slight personnel budget increase of $468,000.

These are due to salary increases uh really directly connected to some of our collecting bargaining, collective bargaining agreements.

Um about a $172,000 in decrease in our operating budget for uh the parks division as well.

All right, I'll move on just for the sake of time.

Let's talk about what you can expect moving forward.

Um you'll see a greater adoption of RVA had to address many questions about RVA 311 and the effectiveness.

I'll tell you that we are certainly not where we would like to be, um, but we're moving in the direct direction of where we intend uh to make significant improvements.

Um, but that you'll see a greater adoption of RV 8311 specifically with the parks division.

I will add a better work request process to add daily operations and will enhance uh much of the constituent experience as well.

Also, you'll see that our RDOT will serve as the coordinating agency for all transportation management matters with the city.

Um, this department will design a one-stop shop for citizens and external agencies and will be fully equipped to plan design and construct many projects within our mobility network.

The EPW again, as I mentioned earlier, I want to highlight that they are on track to pave 150 lane miles.

Um again, I know we're struggling for time, but it's important for me to mention that we cannot back off of our paving program.

Um we need to continue to make the same investments in this program.

Um you've been able to make significant strides.

Just uh interrupting the funding for one year could have a dramatic impact on the condition of our roads.

I urge you to continue supporting this initiative as I know that you have, um, and it reflects well with our city.

All right, looking at our thriving families uh coming out off a record breaking year with our out-of-school participants.

The program is seeking to further increase the number of slots made available to students by about five percent.

And uh for the sake of time again, I will conclude here and I will address any questions should you have any.

Thank you.

Thank you, DCA Wiggins.

And uh we will have a few questions, I believe, from members.

And so those will start with.

We will start with um council member Jones.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um thank you, Mr.

Wiggins, for your presentation.

I'll say the same thing I said to Ms.

Jackson.

I feel like this is the first time I've seen you at the mic, so thank you for all that you have been doing since you've got here and really working to continue to enhance our operations.

So thank you, thank you.

Appreciate you.

Um and thank you to all of our public service, public safety, and all of you that keep our city safe.

Um this is a very important portfolio, and it definitely speaks to the other day we talked about finance is like the engine and then public safety is like the operations, and so um being able to highlight um what we're doing in a way that helps make it make sense is very helpful.

And the acquiring of parks and rec, everybody knows this very near and dear to me, so treat them well.

And um, my only question that I have is you mentioned um that we are coming off a record breaking year for out-of-school time, and we're looking to increase the number of slots.

I'd like to know how that is planning to be rolled out, and then how does that align with um our out of school time that we fund through Next Up and through other partners, and so what does that look like for parks and rec.

So I hate to punt a question.

Could you first of all, if you don't mind, I heard you mention the increase of slots.

I'm having a difficult time hearing you clearly.

Is that better?

Much better.

Okay, so it said um that they were coming off the record breaking year for out-of-school time and is seeking to further increase the number of slots made available to students by five percent.

And so I was wondering how are we going to do that, and then how does that align with the out-of-school time that we support through next up and other entities?

Yeah, so thank you for that question.

I had the opportunity to um have a brief discussion with Director Frelke over the weekend as we toured um some of his parks facilities.

And uh as you know, affordability for many of the programs is a um very important component, and really finding ways to maintain costs and at times to decrease costs of the programs is our hope that it will increase the participation in these programs.

We don't have an exact number of slots again.

Um, you know, the important piece is to maintain the system that we have, but also looking at the reduction of fees to adding more participants into the program.

So will we be adding, will this be addition to a to already existing programs, or are we looking with this increase to create new programming?

I'm just trying to get a sense of so no new programs at the moment.

Again, we're we're trying to sharpen the saw with the existing programs that are in place.

I can't think of any new programs right now in mind that um uh you know participation will be um a challenge, but our our primary focus is on the existing programs.

Thank you.

And lastly, can we get a side-by-side of what we are serving and what offerings and then what we're looking to do in terms of increase.

Yes, if you don't mind, I don't have that.

No, not now.

I'm saying if you can get it back to us that would be.

Yeah, thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Jones.

Councilmember Abubacher.

Sorry, I thought I was down the line a little bit more.

Um thank you, DCAA Wiggins.

Uh, appreciate your leadership and all of your team and your portfolio.

Uh a few questions.

One um around parks and rack.

Uh I see that there is um five million in the FY25 CIP.

Um that means that it looks like that's down by about 23 percent from last year.

I'm assuming that means that there are going to be some CIP projects that are deferred.

Um can you speak a little bit to that?

So CIP projects as a whole across the entire enterprise.

Um we're looking at the reproachization of many of those projects.

Um of the advantages of bringing parks into the operations portfolio is that you know, one, it's a force multiplier.

Two, there's economies of scale.

Could you speak more to the mic?

My apologies.

Two, there's economies of scale that we can take advantage of.

So the reduction of their capital programs is not necessarily a reduction of uh the program as a whole.

There are also ways that we are able to consolidate existing uh CIP projects.

For an example, the Department of Public Utilities is a perfect partner for um parks because we're able to take on more green space, and we're also able to share the cost of many of those programs.

So although you see that reduction, um that's really a not indicative of what's happening with the overall program.

Okay, thank you.

Um and then uh control.

Um looking at it looks like that there is an elimination of one animal um animal control officer.

Uh just like what was the rationale behind that?

Knowing I I've I've had to call animal care a couple times for constituents, and it's right, you know, they they do their best, but they're already pretty thinly spread.

So great question.

It's not necessarily a reduction in an animal control officer per se, but it's uh part of a greater reorganization strategy that Director Peterson put in place.

So that may be it is a reflection of a higher tier uh position within our organization.

Okay, thank you.

And then uh Department of Public Works.

I noticed that the um special fund adopted versus actual for FY24 and FY25 is it it differs significantly.

Um so an FY24 adopted, it was 56 million, but the actual was 58 million, and then FY25, uh the adopted was 61 million, but the FY25 actual was 38 million.

Can you um explain that fluctuation?

And was that grants that were not fully expensed?

That's that's part of it.

Um but I will invite director um Vincent up to kind of give you a very brief kind of snapshot of what's going on there.

Okay.

And we're supposed to ask the mayoral portfolio questions at this second round?

No, you asked that within this five minutes as well.

Okay.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Bobby Vinson, director of public works.

I believe your question was the difference between the fiscal year 24, 25, and 26 budgets.

Yes.

Um for the general fund, primarily is um the Department of General Services being pulled out of the Department of Public Works with regards to um portions of fleet, where fleet as well as the biggest portion was facilities.

And so that was the biggest um decline in terms of the general fund impact on DPW's budget.

Excellent.

Thank you.

So I'll hold my other questions.

No, go?

No, go ahead.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Uh the rest of my questions are in the um mayoral portfolio.

So you're off the hook, TCAA Wiggins.

Uh run.

Um I mean, I think uh this is I'm gonna start with an observation and then move to some questions.

Observation is it seems from my cursory glance that a lot of the kind of forward-facing personnel that we think of when we think of how people are served by City Hall, are either flat or reduced.

And I'm gonna talk about that like across the portfolio, like libraries flat, maybe there was a re-org with uh animal control, but they're down one FTE.

Uh parks is down FTEs.

But then internally, administratively, there is a net increase in FTEs.

So can we can you kind of either one of you speak to that as like the rationale for I mean, because I'm thinking about everyday citizens are gonna want to know why we're adding more FTEs at 900 East Broad, but when they call animal control, there might be one less person answering that phone.

So I'm lost in with Jay Surreya.

Thank you all for having me, Chief of Staff to the Mayor.

I can take a stab at how I think that impacts my portfolio, and then maybe if the CAO would like to talk more broadly across the organization.

So yes, all of the departments were asked to go through the exercise of the 2% reduction.

And so that we could see where that could come from in order to accommodate increasing expenses, you know, honoring our commitments and other areas and priorities that we were looking at.

So when I think about what has occurred, if if part of what you're referencing is in our portfolios that those are some of the front facing people and not the internal people, um we have not had a reduction in in force in any of our portfolio.

Um that so I'm not totally most of what that where the reductions came from uh was not removing FTEs was coming out of the operations side of the of the three budgets that I oversee.

So maybe if you do you want to clarify if there's something maybe I could help more specifically with or I don't I don't think so at this point.

I think I think it's it's more of a maybe it's more of a broader Donald question um related to again like looking at all of those portfolios.

Yeah, yeah.

And I I will just point out that because um I think one of the things we did do um like in OSC's budget was actually move some of the funding that was being used for events, for instance, in order to um to increase a few people that can be front facing in order to communicate more and increase capacity.

So I feel like if that's one of the things you're interested in, I think we we were able to accomplish that.

Um but I'll let yeah, CODonnell you good on that one.

Great.

Everybody's running.

Why are they running from listening great question?

And I think it's actually probably a little simpler than we're making it out to be.

When you look at the personnel compliment that's in your budget books, you'll see that the general fund only had an increase of three positions total.

So there's not a lot of growth in this budget.

And so we're doing more with less is one part of it, but it's also realigning.

I think I had an opportunity to look at council deliberations from the year before, even yours.

I think you highlighted, you know, you wanted to make sure people were paid appropriately on the front end, and then some of our hiring folks both delivered more but needed to live within the city, but also that people we were not duplicating jobs and things of that nature.

So some of it is listening to council and kind of right sizing our investments and making sure that everyone we're aligning appropriately kind of meets that uh charge that you gave us.

You'll see that.

Flattered.

I'm flattered.

Yeah, I mean, not just you, it's the whole council.

I mean, I think everybody was kind of uniformed on that.

I think the second part of it is you can see that in some of these realignments.

You're aligning parks and uh our with our operational departments, and while we do have a human services component that will remain also things like grounds maintenance and things of that nature will be better aligned together.

You'll see the same thing in what I'm calling constituent services when you look at uh, and it's not neighborhood services because I get them confused sometimes.

Our titles are the same, but those outreach um folks aligning them with the participatory budgeting people and you know our full complement of folks, even some of the help we got from council member tram or where once a week we'll be going out.

I'm sorry, once a month.

Let me say once a week, they're gonna crack me in the head, but once a month we'll be a hickory heel providing services to seniors is really just better aligning our resources, um, especially in this time of very limited growth.

So that's the general reason.

And if again, that personnel supplement would be very helpful to you because it'll show you that it was only an increase of three uh net positions over the previous year.

I do appreciate that, and I I do appreciate that there's a only net three positions.

I think I think the where those positions are matters um quite a bit.

Um and that was sort of my my point and indicating that.

I did have a question around the neighborhood and community services and your um and your office.

So it it looks like there were it uh, I think in the budget book it said four neighborhood and community service FTEs moved over to your office in order to align with more constituent services.

Um but then when I look at neighborhood and community services, they've only they're only net negative 2.62 FTEs.

So explain that math to me.

And uh Ms.

Alberbacher, you have one minute left.

Thank you.

No, I think it actually proves the point that you said we still have to make sure that we have outgoing uh our forward-facing activities still meet the measure.

So while we align some of those activities, we left some of that capacity there.

So we didn't take uh the vacancies that existed.

Okay.

And then with your office, again, just if you could explain the uh 1.1 million dollars increase in personnel between FY26 and FY27.

Sure, it's a full 1.1, but I know it's based on the 2.5 and 3.6.

Yeah, I'll have to look at it.

Um I didn't know I was on the docket today.

But still, I mean I think the adjustment one is around centralizing some of the training requirements that we have for all staff, and it'll be paid out of the CAO's budget.

In addition to that, you've got the salary increases for our staff that are baked into the budget.

So there are a few different areas, but we'll get you a detailed list in writing.

Yeah.

Is net neutral with the natural growth.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Councilmember I don't care.

Councilwoman Trammell.

Thank you.

Um I have a question for the police chief.

Councilwoman Trammel, I think we're speaking to the mic.

Yeah.

Oh, okay, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

DCO Wiggins will contest he's desires of doing so.

I wanted to know.

Um, I know yesterday the chief told us how many officers that he doesn't that he needs about a he's like he's supposed to have like um 750.

Is that right, Chief?

750, and he's like 170 police officers that we don't have.

And I was gonna ask him how is he going about recruiting, trying to get new officers or get officers to come to the city, because I'm always hearing that Chesterfield and Him Rico has got um more officers than we do, and I know that we have more issues and more um I guess like more problems per se.

And I was just trying to find out from the chief, you know, how is he recruiting to bring officers here and also about the retirees?

Um, I know that he said that he's bringing them back to work on different things.

So Councilmember Trammell, great question.

And um we'll invite Chief Edwards to come up and to explain his strategy.

You touched on it a little bit earlier of how he has increased the amount of civilian personnel within his department to offset some of the duties that are being performed by sworn officers that could be taken on by a civilian personnel.

Um his use of technology um also is is unmatched.

Um he's um been able to work around you know very challenging conditions, which has not reflected as you can see, uh his crime stats are down, and he's done a great job of addressing this national challenge, which is not isolated to the city of Richmond.

But Chief Edwards, do you mind coming up kind of going a little bit more detail about how you've incorporated civilian personnel into your department?

Absolutely.

Um Ms.

Trammell, I'm Rick Edwards, Chief of Police for the City of Richmond to talk about the numbers uh that we did we discussed briefly yesterday.

So the Richmond Police Department has been authorized for 750 sworn.

We are currently funded for 650.

As of today, we sit at 604.

And that includes all sworn personnel.

As as DCA O'Wiggins says, the first thing I did when I took over as chief of police is line by line look at all the positions we have, what I can fill, what we can civilianize, what can be consolidated, and we've done that.

So I've civilianized my chief of staff.

Uh we've had crime analysis unit additions.

Every member of our real-time crime center is a civilian.

Uh our disciplinary review office used to have a captain, a sergeant, and a civilian.

It's now run by a part-time police officer.

Our forensic technicians are transitioning from sworn to civilian because when I advertise for these civilian positions, unlike the sworn, we have hundreds of people apply.

So it's not a matter of not wanting to work for the Richmond Police Department.

It's a matter of uh wanting to do the kind of work that is required of a of a sworn member of the police department.

Um again with our line by line analysis.

I cut positions, the pol chief police, uh the police chief has always previously had a driver.

Uh maybe that would have helped me uh last year when I got my speeding ticket, but um I cut that position.

Uh I cut the position of another officer assigned to the chief's office.

So we've just tried to be leaner and as DCO Wiggins also talked about invest in technology to continue to drive crime down.

But I want to assure you there is nothing more important, nothing more critical to the Richmond Police Department than uh hiring more sworn police officers.

We currently have, let's see, 28 individuals in training right now.

We are working with Lee Enterprises and and in order to uh target individuals and U two ad, YouTube ads and other forms of advertisement to get people to consider the Richmond Police Department.

Our our applications are up 20 percent, but as I've said publicly before, we are not willing to sacrifice our standards to fill those positions.

And when someone uh does something in our academy or or in the police department in general that doesn't meet our standards, we hold them accountable and probably nobody's terminated more people than than me as chief of police because of those uh the goal to to ensure that we put the very best uh wearing this uniform.

Great.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Well, uh it would be helpful if I didn't have to keep lowering the mic.

Um but I I do want to mention that, you know, it's um comparing RPD to some of our neighboring jurisdictions and uh you know, for Henrikel for an example, who is substantially larger um in population in some areas than we are.

So the number for number comparison um may not give you a true feel of what the vacancy feels like for Chief Edwards as it would for other jurisdictions.

And percentages probably would be a better indicator of how far down uh he is from a staffing position.

But I I do want to wrap up this particular um area by just saying is it's it's not reflecting in its ability to fight crime in any way.

In fact, you see his numbers are trending down in in all areas.

I just know that um when we were at Hickory Hill about a month ago, um Odie was there and he was speaking and we had some citizens there about it was about the mayor's budget.

And I remember Odie saying that one thing that was dear to his heart was public safety.

And I really appreciate that because he was sitting there telling us, you know, that Richmond has challenges and we have a good police department, good officers that you can address those issues, along with the fire department and others, um, because they all go hand in hand.

Um so I appreciate that.

I do have a question about um for Bobby Benson.

I guess I have to ask you first.

Okay.

Um the citizens are still texting me about the um the trucks.

The trucks are coming in the neighborhood and it's not Bobby's fault because the trucks are old.

And they're you know, it's um it's got all the the waste just pouring out the back of the trucks into their streets and they're very upset because they said that um we should be treated like like the people that are being treated across the river.

They wouldn't have those kind of trucks in their neighborhood.

But I told them, you know, if you don't have the new trucks, so you don't have, you know, everybody gets, you know, the trucks they don't pick where they, you know, it's it's and and even a new truck could, you know, break down or have you know problems.

Yes, yes, ma'am.

So great point.

Um immediately coming to the city of Richmond from uh a much larger organization where I oversaw uh the sanitation division, I will tell you that that is a um a common problem, not that we um have become complacent and have accepted that as a problem that will exist.

Uh just want to kind of give you uh kind of an outline of the challenges that come along with that.

Much of the problem um resulting from garbage trucks leaking is one as you mentioned is that we do have older garbage trucks, but um I'll say our DGS um who oversees fleet has come up with solutions to prevent that from happening.

And you'll think you have the issue fixed and there'll be a reoccurrence, you'll find a spot where it allows fluids to escape from that vehicle.

Um but it also has a lot to do with um the residents improperly disposing of items, if you will, right?

Things that should not go into um standard municipal solid waste collections or go into the back of that truck.

Our hope is that the folks that are riding on the back of those trucks were are able to spot that quickly enough and to call back into the shop, and if there's a spare available, they could swap that truck out with the truck that's functioning properly.

But that that is a never-ending battle, even when you have a fleet of fairly new uh trucks, it's it's um it's it's a challenge.

Yeah, and you know those employees have a very hard job.

Anybody that can do that kind of work, I mean, it's you know, I see them and and you know we don't thank them enough for what they do and not just so mad when I see people just throw the trash on the ground, the big bags of trash, and expect them to pick them up.

And I know I've had this conversation with Bobby over and over, you know, this is not fair because the citizens will yell at them, hey, I pay my taxes, those bags are laying on the ground, pick them up.

No, that's not their job to pick them up.

They got to be inside the trash can and not on top of it, where the possums and rettes and everything else then got into them and got the trash all over the place.

And you know, my head, I mean, I just they don't get praised enough for the work that they do and what they have to see and what they have to deal with, and not only that, everything else that goes along with it.

And you know what I'm talking about.

Absolutely, yes, ma'am, and and I will tell you with full transparency, I was given a cheat sheet on council member tramble to make sure that public safety and public works in your district was always um above board.

And um I can assure you if there was any way that we could prevent a leaking garbage truck in your district, we would be vigilant in doing so.

Um but again, we're not satisfied, we haven't become complacent, but it's it's a static situation.

As you know, you can go weeks, maybe a month without a complaint, and then you can go a particular week and receive complaint after complaint.

Um help to reduce the amount of complaints.

Uh, but I can't tell you it would totally eliminate the case.

Yeah, because someone someone asked me yesterday, how come they don't carry brooms on the trucks?

So I I noticed a garbage truck yesterday with a broom on it.

It may be the type of truck that they're seeing that doesn't have a broom on the side of the truck.

They don't have time to take a broom and and do they?

I mean, we don't have extra typically because if you do for one, you're gonna have to do for everybody, and you know that.

It's just like the speed tables, you know, this person got a speed table now, this one wants speed table.

I got 15 people waiting for speed tables.

So I was like, I didn't I didn't know they carry brooms.

I saw that broom.

I didn't see no broom.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

Well, we'll I'm sure Director Vincent will go and do a uh uh inventory of these trucks to make sure that he has brooms and rakes on the side of those trucks.

Um you got to bring a water hose.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, either they want the fire department to come out there and you know, sweep, you know, clean the street.

Yes, ma'am.

But Bobby does really good because when we call, he gets the sweeper over there.

Yes, ma'am.

I will tell you you have one minute left.

Thank you.

Yes.

I knowing director Vincent like I do, uh, there would be a broom on every truck following this meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't have any more questions.

Thank you, Councilmember Trammell, Vice President Jared.

Thank you, President Newbell.

Um DCA Wagons, thank you for being here, and thank you for asking uh your wonderful staff to stand so we could thank them.

Um it has been a remarkable year, and we have a lot to be grateful for uh in their diligent work for the city.

I just had a couple of questions.

Um I would say the first had to do with um staffing at the fire department and trying to understand um wonderful success of the new graduating classes.

Uh you know, our binder says that we're fully staffed now, but our vacancy report showed you know really excessive amount of overtime, um, which I believe is budgeted for in the coming up year as well.

So just trying to understand are we recruiting enough folks?

Should we have more, should we be shooting for a larger uh fire department to help bring down those overtime costs?

Thanks.

Yes, ma'am, great question.

So um, as I mentioned earlier, there are two classes.

I think we had 23 in one and 22 in the other.

Um both classes had um a different category of recruits.

One was to recruit folks that are newly entering into the uh fire services profession.

The other is to um recruit what we call laterals, those who have experience and that can come and and and immediately contribute to the department.

As it relates to the increase and staffing and the connection to overtime, is that again it's going to take time, is almost like an amortization chart.

But although Chief Siegel was fully staffed after the completion of those classes, attrition immediately went into effect.

So as we're recruiting, we're competing with other fire departments that become just as aggressive as we are.

And again, through attrition and transferrals or folks looking at other agencies, we've lost a few in the process.

So as of today, I believe he's about three FTEs down from where we were after recruiting the 45 additional recruits.

But we are saying that we have made significant contributions and accomplishments.

Okay.

I appreciate that answer.

I also had a question about staffing and DPU.

And it looked like sort of a fairly significant staff reduction.

I'm just wondering what that reflects, because I can't picture we need fewer people in DPU.

Yeah, so again, the numbers that you see unfortunately are snapshot in time is not necessarily reflection of what you see today.

I will mention again we're always looking to have a sharper knife and to look at things holistically, and what Director Morris has done is restructured his department.

So what may appear as vacancies or a significant reduction in his staffing would be the transfer of positions in certain areas.

The number, do you have a number of vacancies that you were referring to?

Well, in our budget book, it says for fiscal year 2026, there were 145 vacancies out of a total budgeted FTE of 803.

So 803 was the 2026 figure.

And then for fiscal year 2027, it's 784.

Yeah, I can assure you that that's not today's number.

What I would like to do is to give you an accurate detail of where they are today if if that helps.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

And then some of my other questions are relatively minor, so I'll just supply them in writing.

Okay.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice President Jordan.

We will now have questions from Mr.

Bretton.

Thank you.

My personal question relates to wanting to understand how to read the new budget with respect to our new Department of Transportation within public works.

So I know that a lot of residents are demanding quick action on pedestrian safety this year, particularly around schools.

And so how is this new department equipped to engage with the community with their observed needs?

So before I invite uh Director Baino up, I again, as I mentioned earlier, uh this is a strategic move which was made a lot quicker than we would have liked to.

Um the mayor in his infinite wisdom made the decision to make this move quickly and not focus on means and methods as much as the outcome of establishing a department of transportation for a few reasons.

One is that in the uh transportation slash uh mobility arena, it's important as we apply for grants and we speak on um uh forums and really Richmond is on a national stage because of work that's been done.

Um it's very difficult to achieve the respect when transportation operations are nestled within a department as opposed to um there being a direct uh indication that this is a concentrated effort.

Um but to your question of how um that division plans to address things like school safety, I would like to invite uh director Bano up to address that question.

If you don't mind just for my um edification, if you can just repeat that question again.

Oh, that question was uh around um community engagement.

Like how are we prepared to staff and support community engagement?

Okay.

And as he comes up, I'll let him speak to um some of the social media work that he's done and he's working with our uh mayor's office of communication as well, but I'll I'll let him go a little bit deeper.

Uh Andy Beno, director of transportation.

Um you're asking my favorite kind of questions.

So um the short answer is um we have a community engagement division specifically set up within the transportation team.

So this happens to be folks that were already on staff that have a background in especially with in-person uh types of engagement.

But now with all of us together, planners, engineers, and folks that are really good face to face doing outreach, um, with us all being together, we can be much more strategic about how we're engaging and then um not only project specific community engagement, but year round helping people understand why we do the things we do, um, what's on the horizon uh and how they can be part of all of it.

So demystifying all of these things.

So for uh I've been at the city for a couple of years now, but for the last 25 plus years, that aspect, community engagement, uh specifically around transportation projects and urban planning has been a huge part of my career.

So I'm gonna be very actively involved in that group year round.

Um and then hopefully over time that division uh grows and grows because it I mean w one of the jokes that we say often is if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears about it, does it make a sound?

The understanding, the community understanding what's happening is so critical to to our success.

Okay, I'll ask about um kind of lighter, quicker, cheaper is a term for these quick build, quick things that we can get out quickly while we wait for those longer term expensive long-term projects.

Is there a lighter quicker checker line item in this year's budget or next year's budget and how much is it?

So the way we structure well, real quick, lighter, quicker, cheaper, quick build projects, the the um reason for that, uh and cities across the country, uh in fact the world um do this type of project.

It's intentionally low cost, high impact.

So it's not simply um delivering a cheap project because it's it's more affordable than something else.

It's it's strategic about um spending money in a way that will have some type of uh high impact, so high for safety impact.

Um as far as line item goes, we we avoid that level of detail.

Um city in fact, City of Richmond many years ago um it's my understanding had very specific breakdowns of different types of improvement projects.

The problem you run into is over time you need to switch your focus.

You need to do more of this thing and less of this thing.

And if we have everything line itemed out, we can't be as flexible.

We can't use our good engineering judgment to say let's do more of this type of quick build versus that.

Um you heard earlier about the repaving.

Sometimes repaving is a way to do a quick build project.

You can you can create uh a road diet, you can do some type of um uh daylighting project, for example, if you keep those things together um all within the the purview of the transportation team.

Are we able to get an after-the-fact accounting of the type of spending that was done?

If you can't sort of promise ahead, can you report back at the end?

The you'll be get this is part of the community engagement that you're gonna be seeing year-round.

You're gonna be seeing on the fly um before and after, here's what's happening, or you know, here's what's coming this weekend, we're doing this thing right now, and then immediately after, whether it's through um it information that we're sharing with each of the council members, so you can pass that out in newsletters or social media or video clips or the media themselves, local press um being part of these things because we want people to see, for example, um uh bike corrals going in corners, uh, some street art that's going in in certain neighborhoods.

Um we're we're leveraging our relationships with other departments like the Office of Community Wealth Building and Parks and Planning, um the neighborhood community service, all these different groups who are already engaging with folks.

So that especially when we're doing these quick build projects that do have high impact, we want people to know all about it the moment it's happening.

So and then over time, yes, there will be that formal kind of here's what happened, uh here's what we planned, here are the extra surprises that we didn't realize we were gonna have funding for as if those things happened.

Um what types of projects do we fund from our operating budget versus having to go to CIP bond funding or grant funding?

What's the rule of thumb?

Like you mean the nature of the project or um yeah, which projects could do we have to go use bond funding or grant funding for, which ones do we have to use just city tax dollars for?

Are there certain rules or rules of thumb that distinguish those?

I'm gonna I'll give it to Director Bensett to get into the specifics of the different types of budget, but I will say that there are some types of um transportation safety improvement projects that to the average person, you wouldn't know that it that it came through uh one type of funding bucket versus another.

Um so bike lanes, for example, or dedicated transit lanes would be another where perhaps it was funded out of this bucket, perhaps it was funded out of that bucket.

Yeah.

So um I want to see if I can just kind of give you a general answer to address the funding strategies.

So typically anything that comes out of the operating budget is directly correlated with day-to-day expenses.

Um capital items are long-time term investments that require um some level of um internal and external uh funding through prolonged payments, and then you also have grant funds that are limited to whatever the scope of that particular project may be.

Right.

And um what I would ask uh director Vincent to come up to explain um a very robust program that they have, which is the smart scale program, um, how they proactively go after grant funds and work with our partners.

Um I know there are projects that uh director Vincent has work with Henrico on uh just to make sure that the probability of getting funding for certain projects is increased because of the collaboration of projects that um may go across jurisdictional boundary lines.

But um Rick Vincent, if you don't mind kind of giving an explanation.

Good afternoon, everyone, Bobby Venson, director of public works.

Um excellent question.

Um so as many of you all may know, over the past um couple of years have been taunting about the fact that we have touting rather about the fact that we have 1.2 billion dollars uh worth of dollars to spend within the public right away.

That is comprised of a combination of funding sources.

Um the way that we utilize those sources from a maintenance perspective is through general line items in terms of the special fund and the operating fund.

So that's where we can wind up combining some of our sidewalk projects, moving them around the city, and not having them detailed out for our geobonds and for our bonded projects that come through state and or federally funded individual projects, those projects also have an impact on sidewalks, paving, complete streets, et cetera.

But they're more site specific.

Whereas with our other funding line items, we might wind up doing 80 intersections off of that one line item uh within our budget.

So that's the way that that um winds up working.

So if my constituents are looking for the commitment that you know safety is important this year, let's see it in the budget.

Like where is our stop signs and crosswalks and bump outs, which line item can I point to to say, look here, you can see the city's commitment.

That would be in the Department of Public Works um line item with regards to the special fund.

Um and what what is it called?

What's the name of that budget line item?

Uh state maintenance budget line item for special funds within the department of public works.

So the way that the department works budget is broken up.

We used to have internal service funds and enterprise funds.

They were removed.

Now we have general funds, geo bonds, and we have the special fund.

So the special fund is a combination of CBTA funds as well as state maintenance funds that come from the state, all of which for us to take care of maintain the public right-of-way.

So any work that we do in the public right-of-way with regards to trees, sidewalks, paving, all of that winds up coming from CBTA dollars and/or the special fund, which comes from the state maintenance funds.

Okay, and it sounds like we try not to overpromise the granularity of what's in there in order to be able to adapt and make judgment calls throughout the year, um, is what I heard.

So, you know, I would say there's a lot of interest though in having transparency after the fact to see the breakout of the spending to see the trends, to see how much is going to safety, how much is going to access and speed throughput, how much is going to pedestrians versus cyclists versus autos versus buses.

That type of transparency is excellent so that we can not try to over um promise in the future, but just trust that the transparency of the trends in the back would be great to see.

That's correct.

And if you notice at the beginning of the DCAO's presentation, we had a lot of numbers in there for public works.

It's because we're tracking those numbers through our GIS database.

So at any point in time when someone needs to know how many lane miles we've swept, how many miles of sidewalks we put in, or how many miles of alleys that we've graded, we'd be able to provide that information.

Actually, I'm interested to I the stat was pretty interesting.

So pretty big, pretty big ratio there.

Um do you know what the budget ratio is also, like the amount we're spending to keep 165 miles repaved and the amount we're spending to resurface six miles of sidewalks?

Yes, sir.

We're spending above $15 million for our paving budget, plus we're spending an additional five to six million dollars in paving uh public utility projects that did give us that money to do their final restoration work.

So we're averaging somewhere in between 18 to 21 million dollars worth of paving per year.

When you look at sidewalk work, we're doing now about six and a half million dollars worth of work where we used to be doing less than three.

We increased our sidewalk crews from two crews, that was one brick crew and one concrete crew, to now we have six crews where we have two bricks and four concrete crews and a breakout crew.

So we're spending roughly about three uh million dollars in maintenance, um, inclusive of staff and equipment and materials, and we're spending another three and a half million dollars annually on contractors.

The difference is maintenance takes care of anything um a half a block and below, and we have our contractors working on projects that are that are a block or more.

All right, that was awesome how you do all those numbers.

Um can I go into the budget book and find those?

Or do I have to call you again to tab you tell them to me again?

Uh you would probably have to call me again because they are all not individualized.

But anytime you want that data, we can certainly provide it to you because it's underneath our special fund uh within the department.

Okay.

Now, is complete streets like more of that same concept?

It's just another bucket of discretionary funding for all kinds of projects or no, sir.

Um we have complete we call it complete streets, which is um basically dollars that we have set aside that come from our operating budget with regards to our state maintenance funds and or our C BTA funds.

Um we go that goes into a bucket that we categorize for complete streets.

That's where we do all of the work efforts that I just indicated.

However, when we do a complete streets project, say for instance like a Jank Road project, um at that point in time, that's an actual funded individual project specifically to do a complete street upgrade of that particular section of roadway.

Say, for instance, Commerce Road, Jank Road, Hay Road is also one that's in the process of coming up.

And Hall Street is currently active.

Yeah, this is all going so fast, I actually lost track of what what the answer was.

So complete streets, it comes out of the C VTA special fund.

It's just a subset that ends up going into projects.

We we can do complete streets projects through the C VTA.

However, there's um complete a complete street of an individual project is also categorized as being complete streets.

And I see I see about 20 million a year is what we put into complete streets.

Is that right?

The 20 million per year that we put into complete streets is um 10 million of that is for um paving.

Um and then we break the others down for traffic engineering, street cleaning, and sidewalks.

Okay.

Um I know that we did a uh I believe it might have been your department did a study on 10 school zones for safety improvement recommendations.

How many of those recommendations made it into the current proposed budget?

Do we know?

I'm gonna turn that over to our Department of Transportation.

So before before we do that, I I would like to provide a point of clarification and I understand your concerns as it relates to being able to uh see the elephant allocation of funding for certain projects is not lost on me.

I do want to um express that we follow the standard chart of accounts um far as how we account for items.

And typically we don't break projects down to the finest detail.

So for a particular line items, what we will typically do is to provide the level of detail for that particular line item and the tasks that are associated that were expensed to that particular line item.

So I don't want um, and I know that you're not um saying that we aren't being transparent, but just you know, for the sake of discussion is is not as much of uh an issue with um uh uh good accounting practices as much as it is.

Well, it that's exactly what it is actually, because we're following the chart of accounts, but any any level of detail that you need for any particular project, we're happy to provide that.

Um but to your question, what line item can you look at?

And this this is not exclusive to the city of Richmond as most cities, but I'll uh let Mr.

Banal come up and address the other questions about the school projects.

So I don't have a one-for-one, we'll have to get back to you with details, but uh what he was referring to is the road safety assessments that was in front of um quite a few schools on the high injury network.

So we have in there um I I know you appreciated how thorough those studies were with uh short midterm and long-term recommendations and even policy recommendations with that multidisciplinary effort.

So ideally all of those things eventually get funded.

Um but I will we'll have to get back to you with the specifics of what's in the um proposal.

Okay.

Um well thank you.

So that uh is the end of my line of questioning around new DOT.

Thanks, guys, for all that detail.

Um I did want to say a little bit about um budgeting.

We asked this of the 311 team, like what it would take to better integrate our like DPU with 311 to better integrate DPW escalations through 311 for such as trash.

They said they just needed staffing.

Is the answer the same on our side, or would we need technological budget to do that?

Yeah, so um for full integration, uh, full integration will always have a component of DPU having a customer service center and again having very similar experience in a larger jurisdiction just because of the technicality and the uh the technical nature of the work, it requires um DPU to have uh SMEs to address these service requests.

Um it typically doesn't work well when funneled through um the general 311 practitioners um because there's so many complaints that resemble another.

For an example, um a sinkhole um could be um uh a really a road collapse issue and it's not associated with this the infrastructure to subgrade of the road.

So to be able to address those issues well, there will always need to be a component of uh DPU having their own customer service center.

I will say that that is an area that Director Morris has directly focused on.

He's um added about 20 new customer service personnel uh uh to this particular process.

But going back to integration with uh 311, we're always looking for opportunities, always looking to have a sharper knife to cut through these issues.

Um but this looks like um possibly certain levels of APIs that will help to connect RBA 311 system with DPU system because how they collect these complaints and dispatch the calls is integrated in their system, which is needed to maintain day-to-day operations.

So no software does everything well, and so we have to make decisions on how we select software programs and how we connect those software programs and how there's the the electronic handshake that occurs.

But we're we're not satisfied with how those uh complaints are handled, and I know uh Dr.

Morris isn't either, um, but we're actively working on that full integration, and step one is by adding additional staff members to support that effort.

Thank you.

I have two questions about the our police department.

Um is do we have a breakdown in this budget of how much of our budget goes to technology related to surveillance?

Is that a line item that is easy to find?

Chief has given me the nod.

Um yes, and and if you need that information, I'm sure he can provide that in a way of time.

I've also got a lot of questions around our our speed enforcement levels, and I'm wondering uh is that dictated by our staffing levels or is it dictated by policy choices?

Well, uh whether how much we enforce speed, speed enforcement um in the city.

Well, um I will say this is having continuous conversations and weekly updates with Chief as it relates to public safety.

There hasn't been a challenge with uh any traffic enforcement related issues, so it's not driven by any budget limitations.

Um it's just priority prioritization of um crime fighting and um enforcing our traffic safety laws.

Okay.

Um thank you.

That's uh I had a great time.

That was uh I'm I'm good for now, thank you.

Thank you very much for all those answers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Brenton.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I wanted to start um with RPD.

The is uh the line item for the um contractual agreements, it's like 1.2 million dollar increase in contractual agreement costs, and it notes that uh 1.2 million of it.

I'm sorry, there's it's 1.2 million dollars in contractual agreement increases.

And the description in the budget book indicates that that is inclusive of the license plate readers, which there's been lots of discussion about.

Can you can you talk specifically about what the amount is that is the increase and you know for the license plate readers and in the budget that's reflected?

So specifically how much have we spent on the LPRs is what you're asking.

Chief, do you got that number handy?

Okay.

Come on up and tell us about a lot of questions about uh Flock, and I want to differentiate between Flock is the company, LPR is the technology, and there's also gunshot detection we have under that same contract.

So for the LPR specifically, we are estimating the new contract to be $371,250.

For the for the Raven audio detection, that is estimated to be $167,200 for a total of approximately $538,000 to Flock this uh coming fiscal year.

Thank you.

Um my next question is regarding the fire department.

Thank you.

Um so I I flagged this in our meeting last week.

The 2025 CAFR showed uh four million dollars overage for the fire department and an excess of its budget.

I'm hoping to understand better what drove that and um and how that seemingly structural deficiency in the budget is addressed in the proposed budget this year.

So I'm I'm glad you mentioned that.

Um Chief Siegel called me about that last night, and we were taken off guard by that number.

Um we really need to chase down why that number reflects as a uh four million dollar over.

I don't have that answer for you right at the moment.

Um, but we intend to go back and do a little bit more research to find out where that number came from.

Councilmember Gibson.

I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you today, but this caught us off guard somewhat as well.

Thank you.

Um my next question is regarding DPU.

Um following up on uh councilmember Abu Bakr's point about you know those front-facing FTEs, the budget notes uh drop in 21 FTEs of customer care specialists in my district the the need is for more when it comes to you know hearing back from folks.

So that was somewhat concerning to see.

Can you talk about that?

And I'm also wondering if we could get a bigger presentation, perhaps on that.

I think the biggest line item change in the budget this year is the additional 47 million dollars for utility expenses.

Yeah.

Um so I think it's really critical that the public understands exactly what that's going to.

Yes, yes, ma'am.

So uh starting off with the the reduction of the 21, I believe, FTEs.

That's not a true indicator of what's happening because the 20 additional bills 21 positions are now uh that the service is provided on a contractual basis.

Um so it's um uh contracted employees or contracted agreement that allows us to hire uh these customer service agents, if you will, um as it relates to the 47 million dollars.

Much of that 47 million dollars is directly related to gas expenses and um our utility expenses is as well.

So um uh we're not immune as a as a government agency to rising costs of electricity and other utility-related expenses.

We're we're experiencing the same thing.

Um and that growth or that increase is really com commensurate with what you're seeing throughout the nation and the consumer price index as well.

So for clarity, those positions are outsourced.

It's provided through a contractual service, but I'll ask Dr.

Morris to come up to give you a little bit more details on how he's handling that particular area of customer service.

Hi, I'm Scott Morris, Director of Public Utilities.

Um what he was referencing is is we use contractual services.

We actually have a contingent of about 20 um customer service agents that are getting trained.

Um actually right now we are also implementing a new customer service um system as well, and those new employees are getting trained on that new system.

With the expectation when we do a go live in the end of May, they'll be fully trained on the new system, fully have the full ability to actually engage with the citizens and perform and execute all those types of agreements.

So it's not a true loss and reflection of the FTEs because it is contractual services.

Thank you.

It would help be helpful to get more clarity on that.

I'm just looking at the budget on page 281.

Um it shows that there were 41 customer care specialists in the adopted 2026 budget, and 20 are proposed in the 2027 budget.

Yeah, and I think if you look at um comparable between the FY25 actuals and the FY27 proposed, um you see uh only a loss on a couple of positions.

Some of those are due to transfers.

Some of the discussions on those FTEs were um the fitment in the organization making sure that those positions were never stood up, so those positions were never eliminated.

They were kind of um stood up to be for contractual services for the the project synergy, that new customer service interface system.

So there was no actual cut or loss in FTEs that were trained into contractual services.

I wish I could say that I followed that.

I'm happy to go breakdown or a little bit more detail to explain a little bit further if you like.

Thank you.

Um my final question I is is perhaps more broad.

Um I'm wanting to make sure there's clarity on um.

Actually, no, I'm going to ask about vision zero.

We are putting in more cameras now.

And I'm wanting to understand what the revenue projections are for vision zero.

How much have been budgeted is in the budget based on revenues in 2026?

What is the projection for 2027?

Um I was not able to find that line item in the budget to express what those revenues are.

And my question is is correlated with the recent audit about funding for other grants and funds that we have.

Um so I I want to make sure that there is clarity in that revenue and that it is being put into the appropriate fund.

And I and I'm wondering what that number is and what the revenue looks like.

Yeah, so um, if I understand you correctly, Councilmember Gibson, you're asking about revenues associated with cameras in the network.

So if you're okay with this, I would like for um me to have the opportunities to give you a more detailed rundown and to meet with my colleague DCAO Jackson.

Um because that's uh it's a very difficult question to answer just uh standing in front of a podium without giving you explanations on the breakdowns of whether whether it be just revenues or operational costs um associated with vision zero.

But I'll uh be happy to provide that information to you in the form of a separate report if that's okay with you.

Is that revenue in the budget somewhere?

Okay, so let's we'll bring Chief Edwards up budget.

So council member, uh just for the safety speed camera, I can talk about the for fiscal year 26.

As of February 28th, the current revenue was 4,145,330 dollars.

The current expenses are 1,586,322, and I can certainly email this to you.

And the net surplus of 2.5 million uh 59,000.

The projected revenue uh to end the fiscal year, if uh everything stays the same, is 5.4 million estimated expenditures will be just over 2 million with a surplus of 3.4 million.

And uh those funds can be used to support the program, which again I have to staff it with four part-time employees to manage the program, one full-time employee.

And after that, uh it's my understanding the rest of the funding goes division zero for the program.

And I'm sorry, and is that outlined?

Like where is that in the budget?

I don't I don't think it's outlined in the budget uh specifically.

It's projections.

So there's no projection for 27 yet?

No, ma'am.

And and we haven't added the projections, obviously, for the red light cameras, those are just coming online.

Thank you.

Yeah, Ms.

Gibson, you have one minute remaining.

Thank you, Councilwoman Gibson.

Uh DCO Wiggins.

Uh what happens when you're the last is that many of the questions have been answered.

Um so I'll just I just have a couple of additional uh CBTA and our what it will be our do we have a projected opportunity in terms of funds that will be available that can go to our department of transportation to address our priorities.

We have any projection for this new upcoming year.

As far as uh President Newbards, what that number actually looks like.

Yes.

You know, I I don't have that information in front of me, but it looks like count excuse me, Director Vincent does.

Especially looking for opportunities there that might provide additional funding to address some of our transportation.

Yes, ma'am.

Items and challenges.

Andy, Andy, can you come up with me?

So we're gonna do the one DMC thing.

Those of you all who um are familiar with um co-wrappers.

Um the CB, the C Pardon me, Bobby Benson, director of public works.

Um the CBTA, uh, we're projecting to receive uh approximately $18 million.

Um $18 million, yes, ma'am, per year.

And the way that that funding has been working, um is it works for a combination of efforts, um, both maintenance um uh in terms of Mr.

Robinson um and dealing with street cleaning, dealing with um additional sidewalk issues, things of that nature, um, as well as urban forestry with regards to some tree planting, and we also utilize it for several of our intersections with regards to increasing um uh visibility at our um high on our high injury network with regards to um crosswalks and also some signal modification work as well, as well in addition to um speed table.

So the way that it works is kind of like Mr.

Baino indicated earlier, where he works with maintenance and maintenance works with him in order to address some of our um issues that are identified.

Want Andy to also speak on behalf of that in terms of priorities?

So in terms in terms of um priorities, that it remains vision zero and complete streets.

And so anything that we're able uh we we're all you uh you've heard uh multiple people from public works over the years talk about the shortage of in maintenance funds that we get year after year.

And we're a maintenance first state, Richmond's got to maintain its its streets so anything starting with smooth surface leads towards safer streets.

Um and then along the way, anything that we can do to calm vehicle speeds while uh providing more options for people to move around safely on foot or on bike or using the bus, uh we're constantly looking for those opportunities.

So priorities remain the same, vision zero and complete streets.

Thank you.

The are there any of those funds that will go towards maintaining fear free opportunity?

Fair free opportunities.

Yes.

Uh from CBTA, any of our that comes to us.

Um at this point in time, no ma'am.

The the um standards for the CBTA dollars is that they have to be used in accordance to the state maintenance funds.

And the way that the state maintenance funds are used as far as the maintenance of anything within the public right-away.

So it wouldn't go towards um employee reductions or anything of that nature.

Those dollars would come from other areas of our um of our budget.

Thank you.

You're more than welcome.

DCO Wiggins, um just one last question for me.

Okay.

Um we made a request of 40 million uh of the general over at the General Assembly.

It's looking like maybe 20 million.

If we are fortunate, I know they have to come back April 23rd.

Um have we and to have we plan for that shortfall in terms of the 20?

We like said acts for 40, and I know we had a list of items and priorities to address it's looking like if we're fortunate 20 million.

Have we accounted for that difference uh in our budget?

Uh so President Newb, you're referring to the DPU request.

Oh, absolutely.

Okay, yes, I'm sorry, yes, DPU.

So it's again, uh it would have been great to receive the full amount.

Um, but as always, with any projects, you just um handle them according to the highest priority.

And uh sometimes you have to lengthen uh the schedules for these improvements, but um no impacts on our ability to deliver safe drinking water to treat that water.

Um, but uh again it would help be helpful to have those funds to be able to do repairs and reduce the operational cost by repairing these assets, but there won't be any um uh critical gaps because of the um inability to achieve full funding.

Okay, that was really the concern we acts of 40 look like, maybe 20, and what would be the implications and impact for the plan in terms of I and I know that um Director Morris has been working diligently yourself and so um thank you.

Um, like I said, the other questions have been fortunately covered our staffing for our public safety professionals, fire and police, so it's been addressed, contractual security and janitarial.

So I'll just go inside there.

At this point, we have um opportunity for additional questions.

And um I'll start with council member Jones.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I just had two quick questions.

One was um pertaining to um I wrote it down.

The lighter, cheaper, quicker projects, um, and the funding that is going towards that.

Have we been able to um like assess the impact of these projects?

Because I know that it was noted that a few of them are on the high injury network, and so that pertains to like a lot of speed, and then I've seen some of those, like not necessarily what do you call those, those white, the white things that are we call them?

Delineators?

The whatever you call them.

Yeah.

The flexible, yes, I've seen them leaning.

And so um I I'm just wondering how much um are we going to put into that versus real measures um to enforce the traffic?

That's my first question.

And then my second question is relative to Mr.

Director Vincent has said something pertaining to um sidewalks and the right of way.

I'm sorry, I have so much talk and I missed it too.

But like I was wondering have we budgeted for with adopting the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Have we budgeted for the amount of housing that we know we're going to build in areas that do not have sidewalks?

Right.

So um, starting with your first question about you know measuring outcomes, um, which was a significant reason for the creation of that department.

So we could have a team that is focused on these efforts and um having measurable outcomes, whether it be through the allocation allocation of fundings for certain projects.

We're not quite there just yet, um, not fully there.

Um, but this time next year, I'm sure you'll see um performance measures and service level agreements and things of that nature that um would be indicative of the work um of the newly formed division.

And the last question I believe you're asking about um the installation of sidewalks in comparison to the growth of residential and multifamily residential properties.

Um I will I will say that most of the work that of sidewalk installation is is due to other transportation related studies, which should come along with uh the permitting of certain projects that should be a front-loaded um effort working with our planning team, uh DCO DCAO Everts team.

Um the the trigger of sidewalks based on population is not always a indicator as much as the particular use, the type of projects and um the increase of vehicular traffic and calming traffic, excuse me, traffic calming measures.

So it's not always a direct correlation with growth and sidewalks as much as it is with the type of projects and the use.

Did that answer the question?

And I think what I'm attempting to share is that you hit it right on the head, is that you know, we see the growth, but we're not necessarily communicating about maybe what's needed prior to it.

And that's why I'm grateful for the way that we're doing this budget process because it gives each the council and the administration to kind of understand from each side what our request would be is like, hey, could we know because we're but we're we're voting on funding and budget and projects that we know that are happening in our district, but they're not inclusive in this budget.

So how do we get to a place of communicating or talking to ensure that that is happening because it's a lot of it is after the fact.

Yeah.

Well uh again, I don't I don't want to give you the indication that there is a failure to plan um adequately for the installation of sidewalks or any infrastructure for that that matter.

Um but what I would like to do is kind of give you an overview by working with DCA O.

Ebert to explain when the projects come in and how that that process is communicated with the Department of Public Works for the need of the installation of sidewalks or um, you know, not just related to pedestrian safety, it's related to as I mentioned, traffic calming devices and just um uh transportation engineering as a whole.

Yeah.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

And I think like I said, it just helps all of us work together because I know I'm constantly getting flagged, right, for projects.

And you can I was just saying I'm ca I'm getting flagged.

Uh many of us are because of the city is growing and we're constantly talking about the growth.

And a lot of times you are maybe up against whether or not the city is in a position to even support or vice versa.

And so I just think like I said, sometimes I think those conversations should be had on the front end versus trying to figure out how we solve after the fact.

Yeah, so what I would love to do is to hear about these projects in your district and sit down with uh director Vincent and hopefully DCAO uh Ebert to talk about these projects and if there are any missed opportunities, how we could um at that one, right?

We can meet next week.

That one right next to the case.

We'll do that.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Willeman.

Uh Jones, that concludes your questions, correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Trammell.

Um I don't know if we went off course somewhat, but anyway, um, I've got a lot of retirees that live in my district, like from public works, public utilities, police fire, and all of that.

And they have not had not a cost of living raise in over 16 years since Governor Wilder was our mayor.

And that was over 16 years ago.

And we've had two other mayors, and there's been nothing put in the budget for them.

And now I see that we don't have anything for them again, unless council can um, I guess find the money somehow to give them some kind of a raise or some kind of because they're texting me asking me, and I'm not going to let them down and not ask the question.

Understood.

So I appreciate that.

And also um I'd like to get your name, I mean your number and all that, because I I appreciate I think this is the first time we've really talked face to face.

And I would like to ask you some questions about the property that we bought where the casino was going to go and we lost it, and we paid five million dollars for it.

And I know and I appreciate Odie saying that we're gonna probably have maybe um like maybe an update maybe in June.

But I'm wondering, has it has anybody been trying to market the property?

Because I know that the citizens that have been coming to the meeting said they want like an outlet mall, like what they have in Williamsburg.

That would be something, because you got the Hilton, I mean, you know, the Hilton Hotel over there, the Rivery Vin, you got a bunch of hotels.

And I'm hearing that when people go to Petersburg to the casino, they come back to Richmond to the big hotel over here, and then they just look out the window and there's nothing there, so they go back wherever.

Right.

So we could we're losing a lot of revenue.

We could have restaurants, we're gonna have like a set of outlet malls over there, stores, and entertainment.

We have a hundred acres over there.

That was a steal to get that property.

Yes, ma'am.

So I I do know that DCAO Ebert is actively working on that site, uh, working on a few economic development initiatives as well that she um will be prepared to, I'm sure provide you with an update on that that particular site, and we're referring to the Altrea site.

Yes, ma'am.

Um as it relates to the retirees, I I get your concerns.

We all share those concerns to have a big uh cost delivering increase into that particular area is I I get your concern.

Um but those discussions are happening internally, it's not um that it's lost on the team.

It's just uh the ability to financially prepare for continual increases.

So when we're trying to hire more people or bring more people into the city, and they hear us council members, you know, crying out for the retirees because they've given over 25 years of their life to the city, and then we like basically say you're out the door, we don't care about you no more.

So that's a that is not a very good message for them to take with them because like I said, for 16 years, they've been asking for ever since Governor Wilder, when he was our mayor, for us to do something because as you said, their medical's gone up, they've gotten older, um groceries, everything, utilities, diminished, all of that.

And they still live in the city and they still pay taxes, and they feel like we've kicked them to the curb.

So that's to me that's not right.

I understand.

But I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'll make sure that you get my information before I leave.

Okay.

Do you want my cell?

Yes, ma'am.

C road 50.

I know to pick up quickly.

Thank you, Councilwoman Trammell.

Councilwoman Alberker.

I just have I want to follow up on Councilmember Jones.

Um, I think she makes an excellent point about uh how we prepare for future growth.

Um, and one of the things that I've been thinking about a lot um is this notion that um as a capital city, you know, we talk a lot about how our public safety officers are overextended because of all the things that involve and are involved in a public uh capital city.

Um but somebody brought up a really good point to me recently, which is that uh in the Capitol City, at least we have you know VCU police, we have Virginia State Police, we have Capitol Police that work with um RPD, not to say that RPD doesn't need more people, but that's not the case for fire.

Um and so at like there's no state equivalent to to support our our firefighters um if something were to happen within the city bounds.

So um I say all that to say as we are thinking about growth, intentional growth in the city.

Um, how are we also thinking about intentional growth within our our public safety um fields, particularly with the fire department?

So um I know for example in Charlotte they tie um building permits to there's basically a formula for number of firefighters.

So is that something we're looking at doing and how are we projecting so that we're you know we're currently well staffed, but that's for this population.

I think CO C O'Donnell wants to address that question specifically.

Okay.

Yeah, so counselors is a great question, and it's one of the things that we're looking at.

Uh we're also looking at enhancing our agreements.

I think that the council is pretty familiar with automatic aid and mutual aid, very similar to your police departments.

We have a as a unique situation here, and of course, uh part of the team here is also coming from a capital city um in Atlanta.

I also had the opportunity to work in the uh district of Columbia, um, our nation's capital.

And so again, using that case method, copy and steal everything.

And so leveraging those agreements to kind of bolster uh our our public safety activities is number one.

Making sure that we have mutual aid and automatic aid agreements with all neighboring localities, regardless of their size.

The second thing is is why the mayor has been so focused on this one-stop shop, which we recently launched, making sure that the permitting process uh is smooth for our external partners.

Part of that is so we can get the correct data and understand uh how that process works so we can project.

I know many uh municipalities tout using those numbers for fire, but you can actually use them for police as well, especially when you think about the permitting process.

It includes all of our public safety entities pay play some sort of a role.

So we are looking at uh permitting, we're looking at uh the neighboring jurisdiction uh workforce, but we're also looking at areas in which we're being measured, especially for our ISO rating, uh, which will have certification coming up soon.

So we're looking at a variety of factors when we look at our growth, uh, but I'll also be very honest and transparent with you because I know y'all are the transparency council, is uh what we call you around the water cooler.

And so uh the you know, as we as we think about you know what that means here is we're trying to get a hold on our uh expenditures, our uh overtime was just much higher than what we want it to be.

A lot of that has to do with just minimum staffing levels, and so Chief has taken some great uh strides to make sure we fill those classes.

Well, I think uh Mr.

Wiggins did an extraordinary job highlighting those recent efforts.

One of the ones that is pretty innovative and we haven't talked about enough is this 22 laterals because most times people are still enrichment firefighters for the first time.

We're starting to steal others, and we actually had I think three um return back who have been with the department before in his last class.

So step one, because it's your point is well taken, preparing for growth.

But I think the first part in that is stabilizing the department, reducing the need for non-FSLA overtime, and then leveraging our data to make sure that we're prepared to growth and permitting your spot on.

I I don't know who you've been talking to or what you've been reading, but you you hit that one, that nail on the head, but I would not leave out mutual and automatic aid agreements as a part of that formula.

Thank you.

I think offline I would love to hear how you in Atlanta and in DC contend with sort of the mutual aid and um for surrounding jurisdictions that there may be some some long-standing history there.

So working around that.

Most definitely would love to do it.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, uh, Councilmember Abbacher.

Uh at this time, we'll proceed with council councilman Breton.

I have uh two questions are the public utilities.

Um is which investment can I look to um to show where we are investing in improving the accuracy of our billing?

And so, you know, I want to count those investments, and where do I find that?

I think I can take that one.

So we're doing significant work on our current metering infrastructure.

Um there's uh two types of technology.

There's the uh AMR, MI technology.

We have AMR.

And uh Director Morris has done a lot of work with replacing things such as registers and our meters uh to make sure that the calibration of those meters is accurate.

So and also the uh software that accompanies this this technology, which has not been fully utilized in the past.

And so that's step one is to make sure that the uh components of the metering infrastructure and proper working order and to make sure that the software systems that are used to manage that infrastructure is is working properly as well.

And um to the detail of it, I I love looking at like the detailed like um accounts per department in the budget document.

And it'll I'm I'm having trouble finding the that section for our enterprise funds for utilities where I see like all the dozens of different you know accounting lines per department.

Do we have that for the utility funds?

Yeah, and uh we use the chart of accounts and for each line item we can provide you with details of those particular line items, uh, which will probably get you closer to what you're you're asking for, but we'll definitely give you all the information that we have available in the upcoming days.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Brent and Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I I have uh this is uh the broad question I was speaking to.

Um perhaps Mr.

Donald might be able to answer.

I'm just wondering if this budget reflects any um cuts in positions that are currently filled with councilmember gibson, is that across the entire enterprise?

Yeah, I'll last CAO down with no answers no.

Thank you.

Um the next question that I have is regarding the strategic community, these are perhaps under uh the mayor's probably the questions regarding strategic communications.

These are perhaps under uh the mayor's portfolio of the questions regarding strategic communications.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Um if you could speak, there's a number of positions that are um eliminated in this budget, and they were not all included on the vacancy report that I got, which is one of the reasons the questions.

So if you if you could speak to the substantial changes in the department, if you could speak to the the positions that have been eliminated and um and then the the new positions that have been added to this department.

Yeah, so I can speak um intelligently, I think, to the um the what we moved from operating to personnel, um, but I don't know the other answer, so I'm gonna ask um Director Catro to join me so that he can help.

Uh but yes, we are um, as I said before, um Ms.

Abu Bakr's question.

We are using in a budget neutral way, bringing over some operating funds in order to provide um the like direct service capacity that we need in a in a couple of areas.

So um, yeah, you go to that.

My office hasn't eliminated any positions.

So looking at the budget, let me make sure I'm looking at the correct budget.

Yes, I'm looking at um page 128.

It looks like there is um under strategic communications.

Is this the right department?

Strategic communications.

It looks like um a human services technician, management analyst, principal management analyst, senior, um, and a policy advisor are all um reductions.

We've reclassified some positions in the previous fiscal year, but there have been no reductions.

So can you speak to the additional two FTEs that are included?

Yeah, we're um reallocating money from our operating budget to personnel, so these are budget neutral positions, and one is FOIA support to help our FOIA manager in her day-to-day um FOIA duties, and one is a social media support to help our social media manager in her day-to-day duties.

So can I continue?

Okay.

So I'm sorry, so you said that there's they're gonna be doing social media.

There's two positions.

One is a FOIA support position and one is a social media support position.

The city already has a uh social media manager, and this position would report to that person.

And so the FOIA position, obviously, I'm I'm I'm interested in this position.

Um, but I I do have a question.

In when we were talking about the FOIA library, there was um it was understood that the approach that uh has been adopted would not include would not require any additional personnel.

I'm wondering if you could just speak to that.

Yeah, as you know, um FOIA operations include much more work than just the FOIA library.

As I said, this position is to support the city's FOIA manager and her day-to-day FOIA operations, not the FOIA library.

Thank you.

Could you please state your name and title?

Yes, Ross Kra, Director of Strategic Communications.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Thank you, Councilwoman Gibson.

DCO Wiggins.

Um like to say thank you.

Thank you.

For a phenomenal overview of our city's operations and public safety portfolio.

And I'd like at the beginning, uh, where there were applauds, I join in applauding uh the extraordinary work of the agencies within your portfolio and their incredible service to our city to our citizens once they thank you again.

Um we can do another round of applause yourselves as well as us.

Thank you.

Um we could clap again.

Thank you.

Um I can't I'm sure every member here can share with you moments that they have interfaced with probably every one of the members of the portfolio and their responsiveness.

As well as it it's not wasted on us that there are many members of your portfolio who put their lives on the line every day for our citizens, and we are appreciative of that.

Every single one of them in all the places that they are.

And certainly always our CAO, uh Mr.

Odie Donald, thank you for your presence and your responsiveness.

Just some basic information, timelines, etc.

And then we'll close out after that.

But thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Correct.

Members, both you and city administration have a break next week.

There is no work session in the chamber next week.

Uh and that's for two reasons.

One to be in alignment with uh Richmond Public Schools spring break, and then also to give you time to begin uh the analysis and discussion on possible amendments.

Um your next budget work session will be Monday, April sixth, where both um CIP and human services along with city partners will be discussed that day.

Um that those are some heavy topics, so therefore OD will be canceled that day.

There will be no four o'clock OD meeting.

It'll just be the one o'clock um budget work session on the sixth.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Warren.

And again, thank you all in attendance.

And uh we look forward to the next work session.

This session now stands adjourned.