Madam Clerk.

Madam Clerk, are you ready to start?

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

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

And that will be followed by our council chief of staff, Mr.

Earl Warren, with the overview for the proceedings for today.

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

Do not use elevators or escalators.

After exiting the building, security would direct everyone down Ninth Street to the assembly area located inside the former public safety building parking lot.

Today you will things will start off with a presentation on human services, specifically within City Hall.

But just so you know, we go to questions.

Uh a list has been provided before you, you know, for example, Richmond Ambulance Authority, Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, uh, the Virginia Health District, I mean the Richmond and Henryco Health District, and that will be for your second five minutes there.

And we'll then most likely take a 10 minute recess, uh, followed by coming back into the chamber and having a presentation from CAO Donald on CIP.

Uh and then you will have five minutes to ask questions at that point, and we'll kind of see how you all feel and how the day is gone.

If we're gonna do a second round of CIP questions uh at that point at the end of the day.

Uh it'll be a long afternoon, but OD, as you know, has been canceled.

So you will be out of this building foreclose of business, and you won't have to stay here tonight.

And uh just a friendly reminder that uh amendments are due tomorrow night at 11 30 p.m.

And if you have no additional questions of me, I will conclude.

I'll be available.

Thank you, Mr.

Warren.

I believe the first up is DCAO, uh Amy Popovich.

Welcome, ma'am.

Good afternoon.

That was good.

Good afternoon.

Um I'm Amy Popovich, uh DCAO for human services.

I'm here today to give you a 20-minute, and I mean exactly 20 minute presentation on our work for this year.

Uh thank you to the mayor and the CAO for their work on this budget.

Uh, and thank you to to you all to City Council for your partnership serving our humans in the city.

I've gotten to see all of you at a variety of different community events out in the uh out in our our Richmond City this year, um, and we are better together.

We are better when we approach our work as one.

As I prepare to reach my one year mark in this role, it's been meaningful to reflect on the work we've done and challenging to prepare for the work ahead.

While I've worked in public service for 15 years and been a Richmonder for 20, uh, it has been an absolute privilege to be a part of shaping the systems and the work we do for our community towards making Richmond a place where all people thrive.

I'm here today to talk about the fiscal year 27 budget, which is a roadmap to a thriving Richmond for our human services portfolio.

You have met with the other three portfolios, the brains and the engine and the backbone.

Today, you get to meet with human services, the heart and soul of the city.

Uh I'd like to introduce my human services staff seated behind me.

Uh, if you're in human services, if you can wave your hand.

Look at this beautiful group.

Uh we are wearing our polos today uh with a variety of different colors uh that really represents um the vast work that we do, all focused on one mission of serving our community together.

Thank you to the Office of Community Wealth Building and Parks and Recreation for the phenomenal work and growth this year.

Uh and I'm thankful to my fellow DCAO colleagues.

And I believe uh as those transition to different portfolios, our cross-sectional partnerships uh and the our cross-sectional partnerships for these departments will only see expanded growth and development as we push past silos and further integrate our work.

Also, thank you to our community partners, some who are here in the room and some who are online.

Uh we cannot do this work alone, and we are better when we do it together.

So I'm gonna start out by talking about the mission of the human services portfolio, which brings together now these four key uh city agencies that really focus on the quality of life for every Richmonder at any stage in life.

Uh we focus on people who are pregnant all the way to those who are nearing their end of life.

Uh and no matter where a person is in that stage of life, giving quality services to all.

We're guided by this shared commitment to economic stability, improved outcomes, and just the overall health and well-being.

We know that health is a lot more than just the absence of disease, but it is the focus on the whole person.

Uh and we are focusing on the city's mission of being a city where all people and places thrive.

So these are our four departments.

We have our justice services, uh, which now the Office of Gun Violence Prevention is living under, uh, a really seamless way to focus on that work strategically.

Richmond Public Library, uh, we're also joined today by the chair of the Richmond Public Library Board, our social services team, and you'll hear about uh a lot of new things they're doing.

Uh but I do want to spend a number, uh spend a minute on the DNCS, the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services.

As you can see, there's a network of several offices under DNCS.

So DNCS is a network of offices that are focusing on our priority populations within the city of Richmond.

And we use the word priority populations intentionally instead of words like marginalized or vulnerable at risk.

Because those are the populations we are prioritizing, as you can see, our Office of Aging and Disability Services, our Office of Children and Families, our Office of Equity Inclusion, Homeless Services, Immigrant and Refugee Engagement, Opioid and Substance Use Response, and our Community Ambassador Program.

While each of these different offices have a specific mission and population, they also work together to strategically focus on efforts as a whole.

Next, I'll talk a minute just about our pillars in human services.

Of course, we're a part of all of these, but we focus really specifically on the thriving economy, thriving neighborhoods, thriving families, and our thriving and inclusive communities.

We do this through assessing our work across the continuum of crisis to thriving internally, on partnering cross-sectionally across our other portfolios, and engaging with our community.

As we talk about this year in review, I get to talk about what we've delivered for Richmonders this year.

I will only get to highlight a few of the wins because of my exact 20 minutes.

But the biggest thing I think that we've done for our work this year is all of our new awesome hires, and we've also done some reclassification.

So I'm going to read the first part of some of our office leaders, our Office of Equity Inclusion leader, our new Office of Homeless Services Manager, Office of Opiad and Substance Use Response Manager, Office of Aging and Disability, and Office of Gun Violence.

Those individuals, please raise your hand.

There they are.

Yay.

Those are all folks who were not sitting in these seats one year ago, but are folks who have lots of experience, lots of passion, and have been serving Richmond this year.

Additionally, we have some new hires and justice services.

In case you didn't see your email on Thursday, we have a new director of gun violence prevention, Greg Hopkins.

Raise your hand, Greg.

Yay.

And we have a new deputy director of justice services on his first day, Tracy Mackie's.

That's right.

Most people get orientation on their first day, but Tracy gets to meet all of you.

So thank you, Tracy, for doing that.

We also have our other DJS leadership team here.

As we've worked on focusing on gun violence prevention this year, we've realized that the number one thing we can do is make sure our justice services, our work that focuses on all of our community is strong and serving our community well.

Additionally, in the last six months, there's been a strong focus on our juvenile detention center vacancy rate that's been reduced from 40% to just 8% in six months.

So that facility is staffed, that facility is ready to go, and we have our new superintendent, Leta Jones, who starts in two weeks as well.

Also, a big work this year was about the transition that you all have heard about, and we've been in discussion about in our outside agency grants.

So improving that work from individual grants to our grant makers, and we're really close and very close to the end of that RFP process for this year.

All right, our neighborhoods.

Also in justice services, they received almost 100% in the public safety assessment program.

Assessments are evidence-based tools that every individual gets when they go through DJS, a really important step in making sure that our judicial partners have the information they need in making those decisions.

Additionally, uh, in our NCS and social services partnership, probably everyone wants to forget Storm Fern, but that storm lasted for 17 nights.

In addition to our regular inclement weather shelter, our staff work together to for 17 nights straight, offer additional warming centers and emergency shelters serving an additional 50 to 65 people.

If you worked in one of those facilities, warming centers or emergency response, can you raise your hand?

Thank you.

Thank you for your work.

This is over and above the work that they do every day.

Next, we move on to our thriving families.

We've discussed some already about the after-school work that happens with our parks and rec.

Just want to make sure everyone knows that the Office of Children and Families is doing the coordinating and the planning and the delivery of making sure that all 26 elementary school and seven middle schools have quality after-school programming.

That comes through lots of regular partnership meetings, a lot of relationship-based approach, but also on data and monitoring.

We're excited to also have an opportunity to have some improved data quality monitoring through this next year as well.

In our economy, wanted to highlight social services new building to our 300 East Franklin Street.

If you have not been there, would really encourage you to go.

All you have to do is open up the door and step in to the HRM and the way that the intentionality around the way the colors were chosen, that the layout is, that the furniture is structured, is all an inviting place so that anyone who sets foot in that building knows that they are welcomed and that we're glad that they're there.

Additionally, we've continued to operate our community resource and training center, which has just hit about a year mark.

We've provided financial assistance, but we've also opened our doors to give folks support there.

And then lastly, we've added this year our Caritas Surge shelter.

So an additional 60 beds that supported our community this year.

It's a really important to note that this is the first investment by our region to really support our unhoused population.

So this work was supported by Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, and City of Richmond.

In our inclusive communities, want to focus on how additionally we continue to get a hundred score on our municipal equity index, and also highlight another opportunity that in October when the SNAP benefits decreased on the federal level, a lot of our NCF staff came together to make sure there was additional food for our communities.

And our Office of Aging and Disability Team supported over 300 older adults with tax relief program information.

Sustainable and built environment.

Another invitation to see five of our Richmond Public Library branches partnered with DPU and through some grant funding to do some really great landscaping work that promoted stormwater drainage.

That lower picture there is of our Ginter Park location that seemed pretty massive outside transitions.

It's now a beautiful place, has a place for folks to hang out outside.

So come and visit our centers.

And lastly, storytelling.

Our Office of Aging and Disability hosted their third annual Reclaiming Our Time genealogy project.

This was focused in the Blackwell community.

The others have focused on Gilpin and Mosby.

It's a really cool, about a six-month process where Dr.

Royster comes and she's an expert on African American histories and really walks through families on what their collective history has been.

I actually just got her report this weekend.

So anybody who wants to see the full report on that, I'm happy to share that with you all.

And we're excited to continue that partnership.

As we talk about our budget here and our and our four key organizations, we have our justice services budget here that's focused on the increase there in both positions and funding that you'll see is because of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention moving under DJS.

So these are not new positions, they are positions moving.

This 66,000 really makes sure that the contracts and the work that we have with VCU and with our home electronic monitoring system is able to meet those costs.

DNCS, so DNCS, the position changes you'll see there are because of the Office of Neighborhood Engagement moving to the CAO's office.

But it does include an additional FTE in the Office of Homeless Services.

We worked in partnership with some of our community partners who really advocated for this full-time role to really support the work happening there.

Our operating budget increase, that 514,000 really focuses on ensuring the CARITAS shelter continues.

The funding last year was not in the base budget, as I mentioned, it was a newer initiative that came from last year's funds.

So that's really what the increase that's what the increase speaks to.

Additionally, ensuring that our rent for Southside Plaza is now paid through DNCS instead of social services as well.

Wanting to make sure our 371 staff know how valued they are.

This 714,000 decrease comes from in the fiscal year budget.

There were several one-time spending costs regarding or related to the move.

So we were able to take out those one-time costs that are no longer needed.

And in Richmond Public Libraries, that increase also comes from the investment in staff that we're making.

And then the decrease there comes in that delaying some select physical infrastructure investments because we prioritize investments in staffing services and community resources.

Additionally, we're able to use some CIP funds to do some assessments, which I'll talk about in a little bit for our libraries.

Alright, so what can you expect for next year?

Our outside agency grant making process will officially launch in next fiscal year.

We're on track to put out those applications in the first quarter and have those applications reviewed and approved by the second quarter to make sure our partners receive that funding in the second quarter.

Additionally, as I was just mentioning, Richmond Public Libraries has been evaluating their libraries.

There hasn't been a new library in 50 years.

So the board really came together to say, let's focus on our three oldest libraries.

That's Belmont, Westover Hills, and East End, and do a feasibility study to say what would it look like to add on to these studies.

So we will see the final results of that as we look forward for that.

Additionally, in neighborhoods, as we've discussed, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, that will be moving under Justice Services, and that will really allow for the full continuum with the Office of Gun Violence Prevention focusing a lot on that primary prevention.

We'll be able to do that under the umbrella of DJS, who also does the targeted intervention and justice stabilization.

Additionally, the Office of Substance Use Response.

These are our federal funds that come through the Opiate Abatement Authority.

But just wanted to highlight, we'll be distributing $700,000 this year through our first request for application process.

This is the first time we've put out an application in the time we've had our opiate abatement authority funds.

So we're excited about seeing what projects come from there.

Ms.

Povich, you have five minutes left.

Thank you.

And our families, a really exciting thing we're focusing on is our South Side Plaza.

So you will actually see that legislation come before you in a couple of weeks as we are going to give you all the lease for what that looks like for the next 15 years of investment with a focus on our Southside residents.

They'll have lots of different organizations coming to support the work there.

We'll also move our Office of Aging and Disability from its current Huguenot location there.

We'll partner with Richmond and RICO Health District and several organizations.

Finance will also continue to be there as well.

And then economy, really want to focus on how we are updating the city's strategic plan to end homelessness to better align services and strengthen that coordination.

We're going to involve our other regional partners as well as our community partners to make sure that this work that we'll do over the next couple of months really pushes us ahead.

This strategic plan was created in 2020.

It's now 2026, and wanting to use this to focus on for the next couple of years.

Inclusive communities, another DJS highlight.

We're partnering with the Commonwealth Attorney's Office to pilot a multidisciplinary team.

This is an evidence-based practice that happens across the nation where lots of the, as the as you may know, the Justice Services system is made up of lots of different partners.

The Commonwealth's attorney, the sheriff, our judges, and our DJS team as well.

So these teams get multiple people together to really try to focus on intimate partner and family violence.

Really focusing on our language access plan and how we can ensure that all of our departments are utilizing that plan, are utilizing the phone line and the services that we have there.

And additionally, in the sustainable and built environment, Richmond Public Libraries is launching not just a regular bookmobile, but an electric bookmobile through our CIP, thank you, Councilman, through our CIP process, and you will see that come next year as well.

And then lastly, in storytelling.

If you aren't familiar with Richmond Public Libraries Memory Lab initiative, it's a very cool initiative through that was grant funded that really does two things.

On the individual level, families are invited to come and bring their pictures and their memories and have it cataloged historically long time so that we can make sure that any any history we that were inclusive of all history here in Richmond.

When I visited, I got to see a picture of an individual water skiing around Bird Park Lake about a hundred years ago.

So it's fun to see what our history has been like here in Richmond, and are excited to partner with you all to really get the word out about how that happens.

Additionally, the memory lab hosts exhibits where their collective history can really be shared more broadly.

So as I end in conclusion here, this budget funds more than just dollars and cents for our human services.

This budget funds the heart and soul of our city.

This is these funds are used during times of emergency, like when we need to feed more people, provide water, provide shelter for 17 days in a row.

These funds uh support times of celebration, like when we host uh an adoption celebration for all new parents or those adopting, when we host a t-shirt competition for our young kiddos for our gun violence prevention work in those times where we're celebrating, but also every day in between when our staff are doing the day-to-day work of supporting all Richmond residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, feel quick.

Absolutely feel free to applaud.

I want to say thank you, uh DCO Popovich uh for your leadership.

I want to say congratulations to all of the appointees in the various new capacities.

We look forward to working with them.

And I want to thank every one of your staff members here who I've seen throughout the community responding to any number of challenges and making sure that our citizens uh were receiving uh the best of service.

So I want to say thank you, and I'll do an applaud again for all of you.

So let's one more round, please.

Thank you.

Uh at this time we'll start with questions from member.

So councilwoman Jones.

Yes, ma'am, I wasn't even ready, but uh thank you, uh Ms.

Popovich for an extraordinary presentation.

And um for pretty much drawing the line for us to see where you're coming from to where you go in.

I have the pleasure of sitting on EHS, so a lot of this information I've kind of seen in the works.

Um, but everyone has done an amazing job in making what they do and how they do it and why they do it very clear.

So thank you for that.

Um I do have two questions and maybe one comment.

So the first question is in your presentation, you mentioned um something relative to strengthening language access.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

And then my question is has that been budgeted for?

Sure.

Yeah, I'm actually gonna bring up Carla Ramos who leads our Office of Immigrant Refugee Engagement to talk about her and the team's work there.

Good afternoon.

Carla Ramos, manager of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement.

First of all, uh Consulwoman Jones uh and all members of the council, I am really inspired to be part of an administration led by the first immigrant elected as mayor of the city of Richmond.

And Dr.

Abula in his mayoral action plan uh has identified thriving and inclusive communities as one of the pillars.

So our office efforts is focusing on improving equitable access to city services through a strengthen um the language access plan.

How we're doing these, we're equipping customer-facing areas with iPads in dual handset phones.

We have installed the language line application in all city mobile devices, and we actually added a shortcut on desk phones to EC Access, which is pound 45.

We're also increasing our capacity through adding three contracted bilingual interpreters for public meeting and supporting, for example, city council formal meetings.

We also have updated and completed publish the city language access plan with aligning uh policies to federal and state guidelines.

And we will be launching soon a virtual compliant training through NeoGov.

So, in partnership with the human resources department, so all city employees are able to complete the training.

Through this work, we want to make sure that we all are trained.

We're compliant, so nobody in our city is not able to access services when they speak other languages than English.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Carla.

Thank you.

And so my question, DCAO, with uh with those updated changes, is that in the budget?

What does that look like?

Yes, that's right.

So Carla's team has two full-time folks who are uh bilingual trained uh interpreters.

Uh and then by utilizing kind of across all of those departments, yes, funding for the phone charges, for example, um, that will happen across that work.

Uh, and then in partnership with human resources, that's all a part of uh that training team and ensuring that training is updated on the UGO.

So no additional positions for that department.

Correct.

All right, and then my second question is um, which I was looking as you were presenting, but then I went to the back where the actual budget is and it's under neighborhood and community services.

You are requesting, I believe, three additional positions.

It's not three, it's um this is my first year region budget book, and positions are a little bit hard to tell because they get reclassified.

So if a position existed in fiscal year 26, if it was reclassified, it shows up different in fiscal year 27.

So the only new position in DNCS is the one FTE for homeless services.

So these on the backback for family services specialists and project manager, those are not they're not new positions.

That's correct.

They've been reclassified this year, so they show up as looking at new in fiscal year 27, but they're not new positions, it's just their title has changed during the year of fiscal year 26.

So they don't because they don't show up from last year's fiscal year 26 book, they show up as new, but they're not they're not new positions.

And so these are positions that were already in the department.

Exactly.

They just were their their title and their role were changed, but they're not a new FTE.

Yeah, just that one.

And which office was that?

Uh which office is homeless services.

Oh, one new FTE homeless services.

And then my other question was you mentioned something about the coordination of programming and um is that a change?

You said pro like I think it was um family and children.

You mentioned something about like at the school program.

And is that a change?

Is that something that's not a change?

It's highlighting uh the way that our offices are focusing on policy coordination, partnership coordination, and um two offices do some programming three, I guess.

But how many of those offices only have three or four folks in them?

Office of children families has two, uh, but the way they maximize their work is focusing on policy and that partnership coordination.

So uh and and I think just highlighting um many of our partners here and through that office through Parks and Rec, we are collectively able to offer offer after school programming to all elementary and middle schools.

And this is through city funding or through the city programs.

Yeah, through city funding and through city programs, correct.

So is it possible for us to see what that looks like, like to get that information?

Yeah, we can send the total.

So um I think if I hear you right, that will be the amount of funding we spend on parks and rec staff and the programming we do there, um, plus the funding that we give to partners to be able to provide after school.

Right.

Absolutely.

And then um I thought I was ready, but I'm not.

Um fast.

All right.

Um I'm gonna pass because I still have to if we come back around, I'll take some time to.

You will have uh three minutes that you'll be able to be able to five.

I'm gonna break my three minutes for right now.

I got you.

You can also email me.

I'll phone a friend Alex, thank you.

Vice President Jordan.

Thank you so much, President Newell, and thank you for this um terrific presentation.

I mean, I think one thing that really jumps out is the hundred thousand merch vendors that were helped through DSS.

So to everyone in the audience that was part of that, um, again, thank you so much.

Um, all of the departments uh impact our residents positively.

So thank you for the work you did there.

And uh had a chance to tour some of the emergency climate inclement weather shelters and just um really impressed with how they were stood up in our new community centers.

It's great to see those facilities being able to serve that dual purpose.

Um, as far as specific questions related to the budget, uh I was wondering if we could speak to the zero fair a little bit on GRTC.

I know that's been something each year that we um hear from residents a lot that um is a valuable service to them.

And obviously, we took a hit when VCU decided to create their own redundant system and no longer pay into it.

Um how are we looking with that budget as far as sustainability going forward for zero fare?

Yep.

Great question.

Do you want to go online or how do you want to handle that?

I'm sorry, I'm being um helped that that's a forward-looking question.

So when it comes to yes, I will hold that one for later.

Thank you so much.

Um thank you for everything you guys are done.

That those those would be my general questions.

I have specific ones, I'll submit in writing.

Thanks.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Um Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um this is a wonderful presentation.

I appreciate the time and thank you to the team.

I know that uh January really put us all to work and I appreciate all the time spent.

Um I I want to understand the uh specifics around because we're on social services.

Um for some time there's been a lot of discussion in the city about the caseloads that we have in terms of what the uh employees are are having to manage, and obviously when caseloads are high, um, the residents uh are are feeling that and have in a very real way.

So um so maintaining the caseload I think is is really a critical metric for us.

Um I really appreciated seeing the um department requests that came through the resolution introduced by council member lynch um and noted of all of the departments within City Hall, that department had the the most personnel requests, which made sense to me given my understanding, our city's understanding about how acute those case needs are and so I wanted to understand what decisions were made, you know, in looking at it ultimately that many of those positions you know were not funded.

And so I want to understand more specifically about what that request was, um, why those positions ultimately weren't funded, and and what that impact is on residents who need those social services in the city today.

Sure.

Uh and I'll invite up um Shonda Giles, Director of Social Services here, um, to talk a little bit about the work um social services has a training team, a dedicated training team to make sure that um the work that each case each case manager does is as quality and and up to date as it can be.

Um, and then also about how um we're really working on hiring for our vacancies.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Sean Dajes, Director of Social Services and Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you.

It's a great question.

I appreciate it.

Um there are a number of things that we have done.

So I can say over time, particularly during COVID, when our numbers of folks that we serve really shot up to probably 51% of the city's population.

We're down to about 45% now.

Um we thought creatively.

So council gave us actually, or the city gave city administration gave us some additional positions that we really used permanent part-time.

So we were able to bring in about 46 permanent part-time staff that worked after hours from other localities that we didn't have to train, who already knew how to do the work.

Um, so it was creative ways like that that help us get the caseload um volume down.

And I'm speaking specifically to our public assistance and benefit staff, where they were anywhere between 3700 and 3500 then and right now we're between 2300 and 25 for caseload.

Um, recognizing they don't touch every case every day.

Um, how we have shifted in our staffing um this go around is we have converted some of those permanent part-time positions to full-time positions as we got that statewide Medicaid backload once that resolved.

So we have approximately 25 permanent part-time, but the rest of those positions we pulled into full-time so they can carry a full-time caseload.

Um, and you will see in our budget request that we only prioritized about five positions that were really more around QC and quality control as we're looking at SNAP and not just the volume of what we do, but how well we do it to make sure that we're getting people what they're supposed to have, right amount and things like that.

And so we just shifted how we're doing our work now.

And so, as DCAO Popovich mentioned, our internal training team is taking on some of that QC work, and they've already started meeting with our state partners.

We're actually hosting some of that training and QC work around error rates, trends that we're seeing with performance and errors across the board, not just for SNAP, but all public assistance.

Um, and working directly with supervisors, managers, and staff when they need refreshers to do that in-house.

So we've always been creative in figuring out how to do things differently.

Um, what is included in our budget operationally is if we're not hiring more staff, we're bringing in more people from a clerical standpoint to take some of the weight off of the staff in processing benefits so that they can do some of the clerical stuff with temporary staff.

If that makes sense.

Yeah, I I I guess I'm I'm looking to understand is there a list, what are the positions that were requested by the department that were not funded?

I can get you that information.

I don't know it off the top of my head because it's been a while since we've submitted that budget request in there.

Um but we can get you that information.

Happy to do that.

This is time sensitive.

And to be clear, I am looking to fund those positions from my perspective, ensuring that those residents who have the most critical needs in our city are able to receive services with expeditancy is one of the most important things that we can do.

We should fund.

And so I want to understand.

I'm you know, we're putting the budget request in this evening.

So it is it is critical to understand what those most critical needs are because if there is a million dollars that needs to go somewhere, this is in my opinion, an important place to put it.

We'll make sure that we move with exp um very quickly to get you that information.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Gibson.

Councilmember Trammell.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I just want to say thank you all for all your hard work because I know they do a lot.

And um I know that I'll say just myself.

I know that I'm always you know asking questions from social servers, you know, for help, and they're always there for me and for my citizens, and I appreciate that.

And like I said, um they have hard jobs to do, and especially you know, when some citizens call them and they're not very, you know, nice because they're very upset.

But I always hear, hey, they were nice to me, and even though I was upset, they didn't get upset with me.

So I just want to take this time to say thank you all for what you do.

And I know just Sarah Day, I was at the Easter egg hunt in the Oak Road Playground and saw many of the city services there.

Um speak, you know, uh speaking in Spanish, English, and helping me along with the citizens, and it was we had fun.

And I just want to say thank you.

But I do have one question.

The ones that sell side plaza in social service, they're hearing that they're gonna be moved.

Is that because I I think the CAO had told me that they were I think there's still gonna be some people there, but then like maybe once a month, we'll have somebody there to help them with their um their tax relief forms and things like that.

Um, but we're not seeing that as of yet.

So are the people going to be able to stay there?

Are they going to go downtown?

How is that going to work out?

Yes, thank you for your question.

And for your advocacy, I know you you've been to Southside Plaza and you you've seen it there.

We've helped you helped us get new carpet.

Um, yes, uh, all of those offices are staying.

Um there may be temporary times as we look to to renovate a little bit, update.

We're gonna update with um additional new carpet, some new lighting, new paint.

Um, so only during a short amount of time would would an office have to just shift across the hallway or something to make sure that that's happening.

But we'll continue to have social services there in that front, like they've been there, they'll continue to be there.

We are moving the Office of Aging and Disability.

Um, so um the group of folks who who support your seniors, they are gonna move there full time.

They are coming um a couple times a month to be able to provide those classes like you talked about, but they'll move full time once we've signed the lease, which should be soon in the next couple of months.

Okay, so you're saying that the ones that are over there by Huguenot School, they're gonna be moved out of there and be put into so oh man, that would be great.

Yes.

I know they everybody will be so happy about that.

Because when you go over there, you can't find it.

They end up going to the school, and the school is like, no, gotta go all the way back around the building.

So that's yes, we're excited too.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilwoman Trammell.

Councilman Breton.

So I want to, I guess, um commend and second um councilwoman Gibson's question about our caseworking staff.

Uh that's you know, our residents um rely on them.

And I think I heard in the answer that perhaps there was an offset and increased operational costs to perhaps to make up and so clarity on that as well, because when we're looking for the money, if there's an offset in operations, that's just a helpful way for us to understand the context of how that could work.

Um I wanted to ask also about our equity and inclusion.

Um I'm thinking about our our residents with disabilities and our you know, ADA accessibility around the city.

And does our office and and would those the needs of those people fall within that office?

Yes, I think it would be in partnership with the Office of Equity Inclusion and then Office of Aging and Disability Services.

So Sarah Link and Anisa Smith are over here and in the audience.

And that's really what we're working on is in when you have something like accessibility, you need both of those folks, both people who have those subject matter expertise focusing on that.

Yes.

And so if we are trying to make sure that we are creating a plan for the city for ADA accessibility, just across city buildings, infrastructure, sidewalks, parks.

And if there is something more that would help there, I would you know love to know what that is, if that's a half a staff, a full staff, or if we are prepared to make the plans that we need.

Well, are we?

Or is there more that we could be planning there?

Yeah, I'm happy to follow up with them so that we can follow up with you.

Obviously, things are uh expedient here, but um yes, it would evolve both of them from the human services perspective, and certainly um you know, my the the other portfolio team of housing and economic development as well, um, as they do a lot of that infrastructure general services.

So we can get a few of us together to give you that answer.

All right.

And a question about um I saw in the report 24 vacancies in the Department of Justice Services, and I was wondering if that's still the case and how feasible will it be to fill those vacancies this year, or is this a case where we we agree on the need but we won't actually be able to fill them?

Yes, we're very focused on our vacancies.

Um vacancies take a little bit longer to fill in justice services because not only through the background checks, you also go through um kind of other additional background checks to work with that population.

Um but uh the number is less.

Um, and as I mentioned, in our detention center, that decrease from 40% vacancy down to eight, we're making some significant progress.

So we do plan to fill those and we'll keep working on that.

I think I'm asking because I mean um unfillable vacancies are kind of a place where you know we could be putting money to work on other things that are fillable.

So I'm actually maybe more pointed as to like do we expect to fill all those vacancies or do we expect to have a significant number unfilled?

And maybe someone can follow up with that.

Yeah, uh, I've asked all of my directors in, you know, even in in submitting these um requests and and now through the vacancy report to say, hey, are we using all of these?

Do we need to use that?

Do we need that's why you saw some reclassification this year?

Um, because we really tried to assess what is our full-time um staff count in in any time anyone leaves, let's evaluate it to be able to see what's the best highest highest and best use.

So I'm happy to ask them to go back and just do one last check.

Um, but we have tried to assess those along the way to be uh good stewards of the staff we've been given.

All right, thanks.

Those are my questions.

Thank you, Councilman Bratton.

Uh Councilmember Robertson.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Uh just have a couple of questions.

Um in regards to the libraries.

Um what's going on with the downtown library?

And is there a capital improvement project going on with that?

Yeah, so thank you for the question about libraries.

Um the board recently met to vote essentially on the next couple of years strategic plan, which includes focusing on Maine library and those three branches that need updates that I discussed, Belmont, East End, and West Over Hills.

Um so what's happening now through some of those CIP funds is an engineering assessment to be able to make the determination, for example, is some is uh the library able to build on top.

Can we build on the side?

What's the what's the current infrastructure because it's old?

Um, what can that feasibility study do?

So first step is assessing, and that's what we're right in the middle of.

We expect to have those plans finalized by May 1st, I believe, um, so we can continue to update council from that.

But certainly Maine Library along with those other three branches is what uh certainly uh us as a city and in partnership with the library board really want to focus on in the coming years.

Okay, so I want to be clear, you're telling me as it relates specifically to the downtown library that the plans as it relates to the redevelopment of that site will be in May.

The engineering assessment, that's what we're getting right now for Maine and for the other three branches.

So that's a step one of seeing what's possible in building space before we then move on to what actually will happen.

Um and those are the plans that we'll get by May 1st.

Thank you.

Um second question, uh as it relates to the after-school programming that we have, the level of investment, dollars investment, staff investment, and how well do the services that we are providing there out of the what used to be the non departmental uh fund?

And how well does it what's the matrix that we are using to show the expected outcome for the after school programming?

Yes, um, great question.

Uh our quality after school time is something that's important to a lot of us.

Um it has been requested, and we can combine all of the funds and we can add in the positions for parks and rec.

We can speak to the number of uh position in parks and rec that are dedicated to after school, um, and then the funds that come through our outside agencies that focus on that as well.

Um we've worked with next up this year on the uh the quantity evaluation, for example, where um our after-school um opportunities provided and where are their gaps.

So we know from their evaluation that we need to focus more on the south side and have some more opportunities for after school, more um more supply, if you will, more spots for folks on the south side.

Uh this next year we're almost through an RFP process for an organization that will help us on the quality metrics, um, the the ways that we're measuring, you know, how does um how do how do kids feel when they come to an after school program?

Um, how are they supported in their social and emotional learning, etc.?

And that will happen this next year.

So right now we have the the quantity data.

We know how many kids, how many slots, how many kids aren't able to get in slots, where they live.

We have all that data through our partnership with Nexttop that we could share with you.

And again, this next year we'll be adding on those quality metrics as well.

Okay, so uh I'm I make the assumption that the majority of the residents that you're serving, your clientele for the most part, families of poverty.

Is that correct?

They're all families in RPS.

So the demographics are the same demographics that make up um RPS.

Um I don't have the exact percentage of economically disadvantaged students, but there's a significant percentage in RPS.

So based on this uh programming that we are providing how how do we measure the impact on reducing poverty through your service through the services that are provided out of your portfolio?

Um what is the percentage of investment dollars and staffing that is investment and how that is leveraged to our ability to measure strategically reduction and poverty?

And just to clarify your question, you're talking about across all of human services portfolio.

Um I would say a core um uh found framework that we use to measure that is the crisis to thriving framework.

And so we're right in the middle of mapping out and assessing where are the different programs and components of human services across that crisis to thriving.

For example, we want to make sure that you know 90% we don't put too much percentage on individuals and families in crisis and not have any for individuals who are at risk.

So that's what we're doing right now.

How do we assess where that is?

And then once you assess, then we can kind of track are we moving families and individuals through that continuum?

As you probably know, you could measure that continuum against someone's housing or against child care or um uh their education, uh, but that's a framework that we use to be able to measure that.

Um additionally, of course, there's statistics that come out around the percentage of uh poverty within the city of Richmond, and we've we have seen a reduction in this in this most recent count.

I don't have that percentage off the top of my head, um, but that is also something you know that the Office of Community Wealth Building focuses on for us as a whole city, not just the programs of Office of Community Wealth Building, but also the work that we're doing across city departments and across the city as well.

Okay, um thank you for that answer.

Uh I am interested in making sure that the alignments with the strategies that we are using programming and strategies and outcomes that we're measuring from your portfolio as well as the Office of Community Wealth Building metrics that we can replicate to make sure that we're aligning those things to deal with poverty.

So my question as it relates to South Side being a priority of the concentration of poverty in the city of Richmond, we have a huge numbers there.

And I would assume that your clientele is coming a lot from there, and a lot of that is located not in South Side only, but heavily in the East End and North of the City of Richmond, how we making sure that we're not eliminating all with that priority, what is the continue, why is the continuation of existing service adequate to give us the leverage to prioritize South Side?

I think I will try to answer your question.

You can tell me uh how this goes.

So one of the ways that we sit to try to decide where our our resources going is by looking at that city map.

So the CDC has something called the Social Vulnerability Index.

So each each census track, each little neighborhood has kind of a score from the CDC that helps us know where we should focus.

So the most at-risk census tracks get the highest score, a score of one.

And that's where we can see where our sections of our neighborhood that we should focus our resources are.

So some are on North Side along that Chamberlain corridor, some are in the East End, and certainly some are in the South Side.

So we use that as a baseline to say, hey, how do we determine what services should be there?

In terms of how we use our funding, that's one of the reasons why we're transitioning to our grant making model from the you know 70 different individual organizations to a grantmaker who can look at a whole category and we set the goals for what those what they will have to what they'll have to fund, for example.

So we can set a goal for our children and families category that we want more programs and more services in a particular area like the South Side when we have the data to demonstrate that.

So between that social vulnerability index and between next up report, that gives us some good data to say, hey, now we know where to focus in this particular after-school programming, for example.

So the way we go about making our decisions is we use data to do that, and then we use our community to inform that process to assess where we should place our resources.

Hopefully that answered your question.

I probably need to look at that data to be able to feel comfortable with that.

I guess the question that when we talk about social services and the caseload, where are they coming from?

How are we making those decisions as to where that caseload is originating and whether or not we do have adequate staff to be able to provide the quality of services that is necessary through social services?

Great, we can get you that data.

Yeah.

Yes, we can get I'm happy to share with you the maps, and we can follow up too to make sure I'm answering a question.

But can follow up with the map, can follow up with the after-school data, and then can follow up with you about those information on staff and budget going to out of school time.

Yep.

There are a lot of activities and a lot of events that happens out of there out of those services.

And the question is whether or not there are matrix related to those kinds of services and events that appears to be rather uh can be expensive at the community level.

Uh frequently they're not coordinated with the district representative when those things happen, um, and how those matrix aligning with the overall objective.

And is your overall objective is to reduce poverty for your clientele, which is primarily families of poverty.

Thank you for that question, Councilwoman Robertson.

I'm so glad that you asked it.

Um we are shifting our strategy away from big events to our small offices that are focusing on policies, on partnership coordination, and a few key programs.

Uh, we've actually made some budget transitions, you know, and really investing in our shelters and investing in our our offices and not to big events.

Um I'll also just speak to something just to clarify.

So the whole department of neighborhood and community services is that umbrella of smaller offices.

One of those smaller offices is the Office of Neighborhood Engagement, and that's the office that's moving under the CAO.

So there used to be eight offices, gun violence is injustice services, neighborhood engagement is CAO, so there are now six offices under that umbrella.

Um, and that office is in partnership with the participatory budget office under the CA's office to really focus on civic engagement.

Um that means the other um uh offices that we've discussed here are really focusing on uh the strategy of working on our priority populations, the groups of people that we really want to intentionally focus on here in the city.

Hopefully that helps.

Thank you very much for the notification.

Um I would like to get a little bit more clarity as it relates to the neighborhood and community services and how what division of that is under your leadership and your portfolio absent of that part that is being moved out.

Uh appreciate it if you just provide me with that.

Sure, I'm happy to.

I think my time doesn't count for your time.

So I'll do this and then happy to follow up with more specific questions.

This is the slide that talks about our mission and our department.

So those on the right hand side are these four departments and these seven key groups of work.

We call them offices.

They're smaller groups of work.

Many of them have between two and four people.

We have a few more in our homeless services.

So that's the list of all the offices that are staying that are with uh human services this next fiscal year.

I'm happy to, you know, offline answer more specific questions about that, but hopefully this visual helps.

Thank you.

Uh being last, uh, many of my questions have been answered.

And so just a couple for you.

Uh one to go back, you referenced that parks and breck will provide after school programming.

All middle, all elementary.

I'm happy to clarify.

Um, so the Office of Children and Families, um, which is helpful that I'm on this slide, which is under that DNCS umbrella, coordinates all of that after school programming.

Parks and Rec delivers some of our elementary school after school in partnership with the YMCA.

So all of our elementary school after school work is parks and rec and the YMCA.

Our middle school after school work goes through an intermediary next up, um, similar to how we're doing grant making across the board.

We do that here, and next up provides grants to a couple of different organizations that provide the middle school after school work.

The the message is that any student that goes to any elementary or middle school in RPS has access to quality after school programming.

And and the Office of Children and Families coordinates, has regular meetings, um, uh, and really helps to kind of align and assess the work that's happening.

For example, um, in our elementary schools, um, we're going to align our registration this year.

So, registration for elementary school between Parks and Rec and YMCA is going to happen on the same day.

That hasn't happened for the last decade that we know about.

Um, and we're really excited that um though the the links will be different, that timing and that communication will all be together.

So that's just an example of how the Office of Children and Families is really trying to coordinate and update that information across those multiple partners.

Will transportation be provided by parks and uh the YMCA for the after school programming they are providing.

They do not provide that specific transportation.

Um that group is meeting to assess what are the best ways to support those transportation needs and evaluating, for example, how many students actually do utilize after school versus how many students can walk home or whose parents are there to pick them up.

So that's the group right now that's meeting regularly to be able to assess how to best uh make sure that that after-school programming is happening in a quality way.

Thank you.

In terms of the homeless service position, could you just share what the scope of work will be with that person and how their interface with our Chamberlain and uh the CARITAS locations?

Sure.

Um so at 1900 East Chamberlain is both the Salvation Army that the city helps to support the year-round shelter and inclement weather, and then our community resource training center sits in that same space.

So all three of those things.

Yeah.

So a bulk of our homeless services work and team on our new supervisor, John, who's here in the audience too, um, is focusing on that the walk-up center that's open there.

Um so the services that are available at that site are navigation to resources, um, are outreach.

So we've got a street outreach team that works in conjunction with the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care, that strategy.

So several folks that work together there on street outreach, um, some specific case management, um, and then we host partners who do other who offer other resources like showers, for example, uh, but then also RBHA that has a full-time mental health counselor that that's there on site.

Uh so this position is to focus on the community resource and training center location.

Um, we do have a programs operation position that we are finalizing, and that's the one position that will focus on all of our external partners, the um CARITAS and Salvation Army and Home Again and making sure that all of them are coordinated.

Um that sort of summarizes the services.

At what point, at one point we talked about a kind of quasi-day treatment uh center located in that same site.

So folks could come there, they can get a variety of services, computers, access, all kinds of things.

Is that are we still looking in that direction?

I think I'd have to know more about you.

So your day, we yeah, day a day center, obviously.

There are lots of services that offer now, for example, we have DMV come and provide IDs.

I think we're always assessing what are the needs that our community needs to be able to have at that one site.

So happy to follow up offline if you have other specific ideas about um how that site really can be the walk-up site to support um our unhoused residents.

Thank you.

With that, um I just like to say uh oh, one last question, one last question.

Ums Almendrez Ramos uh gave us an overview.

I wanted to know they were gracious enough to provide um some basic classes in terms of Spanish language.

Is that going to continue?

Yes, the Office of Immigrant Refugee Engagement will continue to be at Southside Plaza and will continue to offer some key programming there.

Uh they'll also increase.

I think Carla mentioned um hiring a navigator.

So speaking of reclassifying a position, we reclassified an admin role to be a navigator who will also be out uh um navigating and connecting residents as well.

So yep, that office will continue.

And I'm very appreciative of that.

But there was also going to be as I was trying to enroll, um, basic Spanish for staff for members for who would like to be able to at least get some basic level of communication.

I see.

Yeah, your question is around how do we make sure anybody who's interested in learning Spanish can learn Spanish.

Um can certainly follow up with you and have to ask our between our human resource department and otherwise um if there are opportunities to learn Spanish, but happy to follow up with you.

And I believe we had it offered before, so what it's not something new I'm requesting.

And if it's not a part of it, um, or I thought it was going to continue, but um with that, I just like to say thank you for the extraordinary work again, presentation.

The questions um our staff will get back to um or through our chief of staff back to you for responses and uh just incredible work in this portfolio.

Again, thank you, everyone.

Yes, as I end, I would love to give one more round of applause to all of our team here.

Thank you, human services.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, DCL Popovich.

Um councilwoman Jones did not exhaust her full five minutes, and it appears she has a question.

Okay.

So members are gonna be provided an additional five minutes.

This this five minutes is to ask quasi governmental agencies and partner agency questions.

But if you have a follow-up from earlier that you wish to, you can use it within this five minutes as well.

Councilwoman.

Hi.

Um quick questions.

Um it's kind of challenging when we see the budget and it's not broken out.

So my question is when going back to the language access, um, what data do we have that we all other or are we using um for like non-English speaking residents, and then how has that changed within the last couple of years?

Do we have any data that reflects that?

Uh can you clarify data a little bit more?

Yeah, just in terms of how many people call in for services, how many issues, you know, how many times they're calling, how many times we have to get a translator.

Like, do we have any data around that?

We do have uh, yeah, the Office of Immigrant Refugee Engagement even hosts a phone line, so I might um bring Carla back up here to say, but she they collect um a lot of data, yes.

Thank you again.

Um offers language services in Spanish and English.

Uh Spanish is the number one language um requested.

Um we get data off request through different uh points.

One is our tracking, the second is language line, which is our vendor, which is used by uh the city call centers 311, DPU 911.

And we also get data for translations or documents.

So we use those data to say, for example, what are the top languages requested in the city?

That's one.

And we from our own tracking of the work we do, I can tell you that in um through two full-time employees.

We have done 1,084 interpretations with an estimated market value of around 42,000 and 232 translations with approximately 20,000 in value.

That's without the external additional work we do for community events, town halls, city council meetings, and any other requests.

Thank you for that.

And that and that was my and that was my question, because I know last budget's like, oh, I actually, as one of my amendments, put in a position for the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement.

And so my other question is what is the total budgeted for language access across departments?

Do you have a number on that?

And if you don't have it today, I don't, yeah, I can partner with budget office and we can get back to you on that.

Okay.

Um and then my last question is because we were talking about social services and how we're down positions with that as well.

But I'm thinking about aging and disability OAPD, specifically language access.

Are some of these folks are doing case management?

So how are we aligning that with social services and how are we ensuring because you only have two people?

You have three three people in OAPD, you have two people in ORIE, but they also are doing case management.

They also are printing flyers.

They also like how are we actually making sure that we have everything that we need, and then how are we aligning them across departments to you know make sure that we're not burning out the smaller teams, I guess is the question, because I can't really even just what she named and to look in 42,000 uh translations, I mean well, 1,000 translations, 40, like that's a huge number for two people to literally, even though we're contracting for like meetings and council, but I I was trying to really get a sense and you can't really see that in the budget.

So that's why my question is what is the total budgeted for this actually for this department across the departments?

Yes, happy to follow up, we'd have to add up personnel and operating, so happy to get that for you.

Yes, all of that's under Department of Neighborhood and Community Services.

Um I think that's an important reason though, why for immigrant refugee engagement and aging and disability services, that policy and partnership work, because we could probably we could use lots and lots of money to if we were doing it all ourselves.

So for example, with Office of Aging and Disability Services, we partner a lot with the Span Center.

So there are regional agency on aging, area agency on aging, um, and they do a lot of programs.

So part of that assessing work, make sure that we're not duplicating anything, that our work is really supporting um the work that they're already doing and that kind of day-to-day work.

Um, our office, what our first does is answer those 311 calls when folks have that question and they do more navigating.

I know it's a little nuanced navigating and case management, but navigating is is usually shorter, usually just connecting someone to that question.

Where can I go for this resource?

Where can I do that?

So an individual can do a lot more navigating.

That case management, that long-term work, that's where we connect with Span Center and with other organizations to be able to do that.

Um it's similar with the language access policy.

Um yeah, Carla's team, there's actually a team of six of them, if yeah, if you include the the contractors, um, but they can only do so much themselves.

That's why the language access policy is so important.

So Carla and her team have uh worked with human resources and and others to update that language access policy so that every department has trained all of their folks.

So what we've done with social services is dramatically improve the number of social.

We're we're close to 100% of our 380 social services folks receiving that training to know how to use that language access phone because there's just too many interactions to be able to do that, and it's too costly to have a person there all the time uh if someone needs that that interpretation.

That's why using a phone line, as long as someone's trained and use it well, really can be a cost-saving metric or measure to make sure that we're still providing that quality service to all of our individuals too.

So they're they're both working on how are we utilizing the policies and utilizing the partnerships to be able to enhance the work.

Yeah, is it is it possible maybe then to like at some point get us an impact report?

Because I really would like to see how all of these departments, because they overlap in so many different ways.

I'm really like I understand what you're saying.

Everything that you just explained was awesome, but I still based on the needs of the city, based on a growing city, based on even if we go on the numbers we have right now, and we know that we are continuously growing.

I'm not really seeing how like yes, we have the lines people can call, but there's so much more that happens, and I know for certain, because I'll be weighing OAPD out.

I be weighing, oh I know it just in the South Side alone.

So I'm really trying to understand how they are actually being supported in a way that is not taking them away from different things, even though yes, you have the line, but you still have to, doesn't the work still have to be the work will still go back to that office, correct?

No, uh, and maybe you can clarify for me, but the individual interactions, for example, that a social services uh person is having with an individual, they can use that phone to have this conversation right now.

So they dial the phone and you get a live interpreter on the phone and you use that sort of three-way conversation.

So that wouldn't have to go back to OIRE, uh immigrant and refugee engagement to be able to do anything with.

So that's what we're really trying to do is to train and uplift more city staff to feel trained and equipped to be able to do that.

Um that way that they're doing less them themselves.

However, they'll continue, like Carla said, to to provide um interpretation at city council meetings and you know uh other other meetings to make sure that there is that accessibility there.

And we'll continue to monitor and evaluate, you know, how many can one staff person do?

How many do we need while trying to to elevate that policy too?

Okay, thank you.

And then just finally, Ms.

Wadison asked a lot of my questions about the the um at the school program and and you said you was gonna provide us with some data on that.

I'd love to also um really see when we are talking about coordination across systems.

Um I'd love to see if there is one, if it does exist, a citywide strategy for our after school programming.

Because I've seen on many iterations about what we do, but I'm it always reverts back to these young people being city residents who live within the city, but we all were often saying that the strategy is being driven outside of the city through partners.

So I would really like to understand similar to what she was asking about between um who was the um what's the uh Office of Community Wealth Build and Parks and Rec, because these are big entities that are gonna essentially be working to use programming to reduce.

So I would really love to see what that strategy looks like if you have it.

Yeah.

Uh and then I would also add in the Office of Children and Families.

So yes, yes.

Yep, some of the important coordination, for example, how we'll continue to make sure that is parks and rec and office of community wealth building are in different portfolios, we'll need to connect.

Um my colleague Sharon Ebert, DCAO of Housing Economic Development, mentioned um the GEMS, the joint economic mobility squad that we're doing that will combines human services and economic um development to really look at some key things.

Um, one of those, for example, is our anti-displacement funds, and what are we doing with that?

One of them is our barriers towards economic development.

What are we doing with that?

That's one example of how we're doing that.

We'll do the same across those other key pillars I mentioned for human services, thriving neighborhood.

Um, you know, to your question too, Councilwoman Robertson, where are the neighborhoods we need to invest in most?

Where do we already have city buildings and city resources there?

And what are the services that we should provide there and continue to evaluate that work?

So it's similar with after school programming because you span um, of course, our Office of Gun Violence Prevention team and our children and families and our parks and rec and office of community wealth building.

That's the work we're doing now.

And when we're using uh if you're familiar with like a collective impact model that's often out um for external partners internal to say, what are the core subcommittees of work?

Who's leading that?

What's the kind of core plan for each of those buckets of work and really trying to map out that work so nothing gets lost and there is coordination that's happening?

Yeah, I think that could be included in that like impact report, because I really I just really want to see.

I think we I'm not I'm not taking away from any of the work that anyone is doing, but I think it would just be helpful if we could 30 seconds, Ms.

Jones.

If we could just get around what this looks like, so we can have a full sense of when we're talking about it, when we're pushing it, promoting it, even when we're talking to partners and people who want to invest and get involved, how do we what does a well-resourced at the school program look like for our young people in the city of Richmond?

Beat it under 30.

Yep.

Thank you again, uh DCO um Popovich.

Um members at this time, we have representatives in the audience and or virtually from our quasi-governmental and partner agencies.

And so if you have questions at this time, uh yes.

Uh the next would be Council Vice uh President Jordan.

Thank you, President Nivelle.

And um, yes, I was interested in asking some questions about GRTC.

Uh I believe Mr.

Dillard is perhaps here.

Um my primary question is you know, how do we make sure that fare-free remains sustainable?

Because that's something that we hear our residents really value a great deal.

Um I see that we have a contribution in the budget towards fare-free.

Just wondering if we have tried again to reach out to BCU about them coming back on as you know, investing in this service rather than duplicating through their new bus lines.

Thanks.

Thank you Vice President Jordan for asking the question.

We're looking for clarification on our end because we're looking at the budget online and we do see the 1.5 million dollars included for zero fare.

We will be happy to support that amendment and put it in the budget, but the proposed budget that the mayor introduced did not include zero fare.

Case in point, we're still moving forward supporting zero fare through the GRTC program.

We have applied for different federal funds.

We have CMAC money.

Two of your council members here, I think one of them is in the back that serve on IGRTC uh board.

We have taken a position that we're not going to be returning fares, so we're doing everything within our power.

However, if the city does uh want to entertain and make sure that it's an uh item in the budget to include, we're more than happy to do that.

But right now we are working upper avenues to make sure that zero fare is funded next year that does not include uh the budget item amendment that you guys have before you and your presentation.

So we are looking for clarification on that.

I know last year we worked with councilwoman Robertson to submit 1.5 million dollars, but we haven't worked with any council member this year to include the 1.5 million dollars for zero fare.

Um okay, I appreciate that.

Can you also speak to uh any collaboration or reinvestment by VCU, which used to pay into GRTC?

How do I say this nicely?

Uh we are collaborative partners with VCU.

We are working with VCU Medical and other other avenues.

V to your point uh for council members that don't know, VCU came in of a little bit over a million dollars to include IZero Fair funding.

Uh they stopped that program.

It really wasn't toward zero fare.

They were doing this enhanced advertising on our bus our pulse bus line, which they did not redo the application.

Uh that led us into an opportunity to back into some CMAC funding, uh, which helps with traffic congestion and mitigation from the federal level, which kind of helped offset.

So right now we're still trying to have conversations with VCU of what that will look like, not just zero fare, our downtown transfer station and other projects, but we have not really re-engaged with them when it came to supporting zero fare as of today.

Okay, and prior to the advertising, which I just that wasn't on my radar, um, didn't they used to help fund GRTC so that their community of students and faculty and staff could ride?

Vice President Jordan, you are correct.

So they did give us a certain amount of money where their students will always ride for free.

Uh in transferring over when COVID happened, they still gave us that same amount of money which we allowed to use it and flex it system-wide to continue zero fare.

As that contract ended, we did re-engage with their leadership in which they kind of made that decision not to renew that uh one million dollar ass.

So if we were to go back to fair charging, which I'm hoping no one takes that in and as a grain of salt, they will be paying for their students again in the same manner in which you were talking about as far as that million dollars that they gave for their students to ride for free.

Okay, thank you.

Um appreciate that.

My other question was for public libraries.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Scott Feierstein, director of Richmond Public Library.

Hi, thank you so much for coming in.

And um I feel really excited that the main branch is now in the second.

Um libraries just provide services for all our constituents and as well as emergency service spaces when they're needed.

Um can you help us understand a little bit uh reduction in operating budgets?

Like what actually is that deduction and then um yes, that that's the main question.

Thank you.

Um so as DCA Popovich pointed out, uh we've delayed some maintenance in our operational budget and um made some adjustments in our uh personnel budget.

We're delaying filling a special or uh law library position.

Oh, we're gonna cover those duties and needs with uh regular staff until funding from the courts can return to levels that we need to cover that position fully.

So we're uh as soon as that funding comes back and as soon as other things can happen, we'll fill that position.

But we're just holding on that for now.

So that's how we manage the uh reduction in operations.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Councilmember Aubacher.

Thank you.

Um this is for DCAO Popovich.

And I apologize if I'm asking questions that have already been raised.

Um sorry.

Um I just wanted to circle back.

I I understand uh the umbrella organization of neighborhood and community um services.

I I noticed that there is an um a request for new positions in that office that are currently on the vacancy report.

Can you speak to the need for those positions and how long have the vacant ones been vacant?

Sure, yeah, happy to um it is a little confusing on that sheet.

There's only one new position for uh neighborhood and community services under homeless services.

Those others are reclassifications.

So if they didn't show up on fiscal year 26, they're showing up like they're new, they're not new, they've just been reclassified and are being filled right now.

Okay.

And then um I haven't had a chance to kind of dig into this, but I I know that you know we get a substantial amount of money for the opioid abatement fund.

Can you um kind of talk me through the next 12 months of projected funding of that, and then um sort of how we're currently deploying that money?

Sure, happy to um so those funds come through the opioid abatement authority, and there's basically three different ways we can get those funds.

We have a direct share that comes kind of that we have already, um, and then we can apply for specific projects as a city, and then we also can apply as a region.

So we have applied through some of our regional partnerships.

So um some of our our funding that have already happened are our three um uh three vending machines that have been placed.

So we applied for additional vending machines for next year, for example.

Um we have a couple of regional partnerships, one around pregnant people who have substance use, um, and then one around resources.

We have Monica's in the office.

Hi, Monica.

Um, and she is funded through Oprah Abatement Authority and is working on uh a regional work on how do we make sure those resources and connections are updated for our community.

Uh and then um so we and also we continually kind of get regular um additional settlements, so that that exact amount kind of waivers a little bit.

But the thing we're most excited about is we just released that um request for application.

It's the first time since the city's had OAA funds that we've ever released an application.

Uh we anticipate using about $700,000 um throughout this next year for those.

So um that process just closed.

The the team will be reviewing those applications and we'll be funding from them.

So that's that's the biggest thing that's coming up this next year.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, how would that um kind of what is the distinction between um like that application process and then some of our partner agencies that are applying for non-defunds?

Yeah.

Um, so wherever Stan River.

Um for wherever possible, we're really trying to move to a transparent process where funds that we have as a city um we um offer out to our community to apply and then um to be selected based on scoring.

Um so that's true for our opiate abatement funds, which are one section.

Um, and then additionally, our grant making process, that's the transition we're doing from individualized grants to um core grant makers, um subject matter grant makers over four categories.

So uh they're similar in that um we're really moving to that transparent process of everyone applying, um, but it is a different um bucket of money.

So the the individual to um uh external agency grant making process is city funds.

Opiate abatement authority funds are not city funds at all, but they're city managed.

So uh council approves when we accept those funds, for example.

So could somebody apply to both of those and receive funding from both of those sources?

Yes, although I'll just say that you know um we are uh uh keeping an eye on where um you know to avoid unnecessary duplication, et cetera.

So we're doing that work, but yes, um, organization X might do both substance use work and let's call it after school time work.

Um they might apply for their substance use work under the OAA under our RFA that we just put out, and they might apply for our their after-school work um through that grant making.

Yeah.

Okay, but they're they're being monitored so that there's not a lot of double dipping or duplicative.

Yes, we're making sure, and it's in the it will be in those contracts with our grant makers too that we will review um before they actually give funds will review to avoid any unnecessary duplications.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Alba Banker.

Councilwoman Gibson.

I have no questions specific to the this grouping.

My group, my questions are regarding the CIP, so I understand I should ask next.

Yes, thank you.

Uh Councilwoman Trammel.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I don't know if this is um with social service or finance, but do you know when the forms are going to be ready for us to start giving them to the citizens for the 2026 tax relief?

Because so many people are asking me for them, and I don't know where they are, I don't have them.

And then also for the past couple of months, I've been getting so many calls with my where the citizens have been taken off the tax relief because they did not get those forms in the mail to be filled out so they can be recertified or just sign it.

And I know that I mean it's I know that a lot of those citizens, I helped them with those forms.

I helped them get on tax relief, and now they've been taken off.

And one lady I saw yesterday, she was crying because she got $8,000 um delinquent bill, and now it's like she's scared her house is in jeopardy of being taken away from her because how is she at almost 90 years old gonna come up with $8,000?

And she said that they never sent her a form, and she had the stack of papers like that, and we went through them and I did not see anything from 2425.

And uh I don't know how we're gonna because you can't it's like he said she said, but when the mail doesn't come before because they get lost or or whatever, or a senior goes in the hospital and doesn't open up her mail for about a month when she finally gets home from rehab or whatever, then she gets her now.

They're getting letters telling them you're no longer on tax relief.

What how do we how do we do that?

How do we how do we do that to the homeowners that are at that age where they their health is failing, they have so many other issues going on and they don't always open up this or see that, and then some people thought it was junk mail and didn't even open it up.

So I know there are a lot of questions, but they're asking me to please ask you or ask the mayor, what are they going to do and how are we going to fix this?

Because the homeowners are the ones that are carrying all these different, you know, I guess um things that we that we give away or give to others that you know they're saying we need help too.

And then we talk about one lady just said if you're talking about doing Spanish, who's when are you gonna start teaching them how to read and do and speak English?

Uh they're good questions that I, you know.

Yeah, that you're hearing from your I know you're you're so connected to your people.

It's beautiful.

Um, we're we're thankful that you've advocated for you know our Office of Aging and Disability to come and do those regular tax relief programs.

Um we're happy to continue to add things in those sessions, like this is what the the letter looks like.

Um but if there are specific, I I will um connect you to the finance department.

They are the ones that run the tax relief program for some of those specific um questions.

But um for the Office of Aging and Disability and our our um education and and the the regular sessions we have with the seniors and south and as I said, um thanks to your advocacy in South Side Plaza, we'll continue to do that.

Um but if your seniors have specific questions about their application form, we can follow up offline to make sure that I get connected to finance.

I've had I have asked those questions, and I've and I've also left a message for the CAO to call me because now that we got others that are getting involved in this is coming to this council meeting probably Monday and bringing some of the citizens down here.

You know, the forms have not been printed yet.

I don't know because of the color, I don't know because it's not right, I don't know why.

But here we are, April the 6th today, and we don't have the forms.

And I'm not blaming the employees in finance, it's because it's you know, I'm quite sure they're they're overloaded with what their what they have on their desk.

Do we need more people in there?

Do they I don't I don't know because I don't I'm not in that department.

But Tony Beachum does a heck of a good job.

I mean, she's there 24-7 when we call her and she tries to help, but she don't have the forms either.

And then the 311 they say we'll take your call and they don't get back with them and nobody's gotten back with them when they've called 311 to say hey I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

And I have all this information because I took pictures of several about five of them yesterday on Easter Sunday crime because they are not on tax relief.

And it's and they don't have the money and now how the ones that they don't even know if they're still on it or not because they don't have the forms.

When are we supposed to get them so that us council members can give them out to the citizens when we have our events or district meetings.

DCO Popovich will you follow up with our CAO and I I guess whomever is in fine to get that information back to all members as soon as possible.

I know that's that's not an entity in your portfolio but you're hearing from councilwoman Tramble in terms of the challenges so if we could get that as soon as possible not see the CAO is back there so at some point we can president I want to make it clear that our people know finance department those employees they're overworked and they are doing their job to the best of their ability and so is Tony Beacham over there because they do try to find it and when they do find it they go in and I know she's just as nice as she can be with them trying to help them out.

Also I want to thank do I have one 30 more seconds just one just one thing I just want to say um think I am so grateful that our library is open on Broadrock even on Sardi's because the citizens use the libraries and I think my colleague I think she is right we need to have these libraries open for the public for the ones that we know that they use them.

But thank you so much thank you.

Thank you Councilmember Trammel.

Councilman Breton I actually do have one question for the DCAO that I forgot to ask which is I saw you highlighted the um safe reps to schools as a highlight of the OCF office is there significant portion of the OCF budget related to supporting safe reps to schools or was that like one project that happened to be a highlight?

Yep that's just one project most of the office's budgets are consistent of the the personnel there's a small amount of operating for each one but what OCF does in that role is also the coordinating so OCF is the one that's bringing those partners together fit for kids and managing that Virginia Department of Transportation grant.

So there's some grant funds through BDOT that helped to to fund those um but then also does the work of the coordination there.

Okay.

And the ministers remember to the um mentioned retirement systems I don't know if they have a representative here to answer but um help us to understand the need and ability to fund a colour um if we had an analysis of the recipients you know how much they receive the quartiles the medians the percentiles so um I know I think we batch information but you know as we go through this process I'd like to let it be known that I'd like that information.

Certainly Mr Councilmember Breton we will reach out to RRS RRS.

They've given some information but yes there's several persons who are desirous of getting that information so thank you for raising that.

And that's all for this group.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Robertson thank you Dr.

Nealville one question in regards to we have previously gotten a report um to measure the impact of the reduction anticipated reductions in federal funds.

And so I know uh Amy a lot of your uh programs are federally funded uh and there's continue to be recommendation proposed changes what kind of impact is that gonna uh is it appropriate to do an update on the impact of anticipation what's happening with federal dollars I the I think the main thing I could say that may be federal and state dollars it's just in the partial government shutdown there weren't any of our human services uh federal funds that were affected um uh so we'll continue to track and we'll continue to update but currently as of today there um are not impacts um uh yeah as of today on our current city services um but as things and continue to shift in ebb and flow we'll continue to follow up with you all on that thank you council member Robertson uh council member Gibson you had a question thank you madam president um I did want to ask about the gap grant funding um I appreciate the administration has caught up on the backlog that has been um reported in um media I I was curious though about where that where that funding is so um according to section sixteen three uh it says that the city of richmond may make appropriations to the local board of social services for the purpose of providing funds for the gap grant

I appreciate the administration has caught up on the backlog that has been reported in media.

So according to Section 16-3, it says that the City of Richmond may make appropriations to the local board of social services for the purpose of providing funds for the gap grant program.

So I'm just wondering where that money is in the budget, how much was allocated in the last budget, where I can see it for fiscal year 27.

It's under the finance department.

So happy to coordinate with my finance teammates on that one, but that's where the gap grant currently sits.

But that GAMP GAAP grant by City Code is currently housed in finance.

So just to be clear, so although the ordinance requires the appropriation to the local board of social services, it's not going to the local board of social services.

I don't have the city code in front of me, but it is in the finance department.

However, it's social services that does the final approval of the applications.

Okay, thank you.

So is there money for next year's budget?

There's not additional money for next year's budget, to my knowledge.

But I will check with my teammates and confirm with you.

Welcome, CAO Donald.

Thank you.

So yes, these funds were actually appropriated already there in the FY26 budget in the memorandum that I sent council that highlights um what we did to clear up the backlog and what our plan is moving forward will actually be coming to you as discussed and um written in that memo will be coming back to you so that we can reappropriate those dollars in FY27.

The first thing we did was clear up the backlog.

Second thing that we have to do is reappropriate those funds and then allocate them appropriately.

So that's forthcoming in the process that I provided to you previously.

So I appreciate that.

Just for clarity, and I will re-review that memo again.

Um the money then for this is it's surplus money that's being used for that program.

Where I I just w where is it?

It's in your FY, it's in the FY26 budget.

We suspended that program so it sits there.

We did the backlog, we cleared it.

I think there's an additional 700,000 or so that has been allocated.

Uh again, I don't know those numbers off the top of my head, but they are in the memorandum.

The next step is to actually allocate those funds which were intended to be expended already.

Now those funds will come back before you, and then we will allocate them in FY27.

So you don't see them in there.

So they're not this is not in the budget.

No, they're in the FY26 budget and through legislation, because your legislation was pretty prescriptive and what had to occur, we have to present new legislation in which we will reallocate those funds.

Understood.

So where is that money come from?

Where will where will it be allocated from?

It'll be allocated from the current existing budget wherever it sits now.

I don't have the budget book in front of me, but wherever it is in FY26, it will then come and you will forward it into FY27 through an amendment.

Right.

I think that's the question.

If you could just show me where it is in the fiscal year 27, it is in that memo though.

So I just don't have the memo in front of me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, CAO Donnell.

Uh I think I'm blast up for question and I'll keep it to one.

This is relative to GRTC again.

I want to be clear in terms of the fare-free scenario and what we're looking at there.

And especially relative to funding, are we utilizing any funding from CVTA to that extent?

Uh good morning.

So good morning.

Good afternoon again, Ms.

Madam Chair.

We're not using CBTA funds that are allocated directly to Zero Fair, but we do have we do use CBTA funds.

That's those are the ones I'm talking about.

Currently, we don't use CBTA funds to allocate towards zero fare.

The makeup right now is uh we have our surplus, so we tap into our surplus.

We have an additional two million dollars CMAC, and then we use our advertising money.

And typically our goal is to get to that $5.6 billion that we need for zero fare.

Just to answer it.

So the Delta needed now based on the contributions that have been made from the other partners.

So the what would I ask for clarification when we asked for 1.5 million dollars?

We didn't have a $2 million uh federal CMAC at that time.

Correct.

We have it now this year too.

So when we saw uh just now the 1.5 ass, we're kind of looking for clarification on our side.

So uh for for council members, uh we don't want you to think that we don't have that 1.0 million as I shared last year with Councilmember Robinson.

Yeah, I'm just being clear.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'll bring I'll let Adrian Torres talk to it as well.

Welcome, Ms.

Doris.

Good afternoon, good afternoon.

Uh Joe is correct.

For the FY26, we were able to identify um kind of a surplus from last year for this year, but we did make a request at FY27 to the administration uh for 1.5 million um kind of as our baseline budget to match for zero fare.

Uh we do have, of course, uh efforts towards other revenue streams to bring that in, which includes the advertising that Joe mentioned.

Um we have the congestion medication air quality that we have a grant in for now.

It's not necessarily guaranteed in every year we have to annually go after it.

Um, as well as we are working kind of with the greater region RVA to identify kind of business, corporate, and community funds to move towards the effort, and we have a new position, uh Transmit Access Partnership Program Manager who is trying to fundraise.

So we're trying various avenues, but we did put a request in this year for additional 1.5 million.

And my understanding it's not continuing forward at this point.

Okay, so uh are you anticipating that we will have funds from those sources that you delineated that would allow us to have fare-free, continue to have fare-free in the city.

Yes, we are projecting that those sources will be.

Okay.

For 27, yeah.

That's what I'm talking about.

Yes.

But no C BTA.

I know that there's a part of C BTA that comes to the jurisdictions, I didn't know if that we the question is.

Right.

Okay.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Um, my question is answered as long as you are um indicating we will have fare-free for our citizens.

Yes, it will continue.

Thank you for your work.

Members at this time.

Madam President.

It's me.

Um I'm kind of upset because um, hear me out, please.

The CAO came down here and addressed um one of my colleagues over some questions.

I would like uh it I would appreciate it if he could have addressed me in reference to my seniors that are being taken off the tax relief that I did call him and ask him, and he should have had the respect for me to at least give me an answer.

Okay.

Or say something.

He was, I mean, I'm not it's not up to me to go down there.

It's not Councilwoman Trammell.

Um CAO Donald will be presenting the next uh CI over the CIP portfolio, and I'll ask him to provide that information when he comes up to do that.

Okay, I appreciate that.

I didn't know that.

Also, I want to thank her for your hard work and for you speaking loud enough so that the citizens can hear that are at home and watching this and listening.

So thank you for all that you do.

You're a great employee, and I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would like to uh before we adjourn, we'll take a quick break before the CIP presentation.

But I want to personally thank all of our, and many of you are here and some are on virtually our quasi-governmental agencies and partners, if you just raise your hands.

Just want to say thank you.

Um we appreciate the partnership and the work and the accomplishments and the leadership that you bring uh in the various components, uh various entities, and just wanted to acknowledge and thank you for your work.

With that, members, we're gonna take a 10-minute break and then we'll return for the CIP project portfolio at 3 o'clock, 10 minutes.

3 o'clock.

I'm coming up for you.

Good afternoon, members, if you would join me on the dais so that we can get underway with the next part of our work session.

It will focus on the capital improvement projects portfolio.

And our CAO, OD Donald, uh, will be uh presenting.

Welcome again, Mr.

Donald.

Thank you.

Okay.

Would it be okay for me to, I think uh there was a question around disrespect and you know, me calling, not calling back, and all of those things.

I want to make sure to be respectful and answer the questions from Council Member Trammell.

May I start with that, Madam President?

Yes, Mr.

Donald.

Thank you.

Well, Councilmember Trammell, I wanted to respond to your question.

I know that Miss Popov is responded earlier, and she is well equipped to respond on behalf of the administration, but I did want to make sure that I responded to your comments around uh lack of respect or lack of response, and just remind just provide a little bit of a refresher.

So much though, I think the third day on the job, I spent time with you at your meeting.

Your first meeting was the first meeting that I had with anybody.

And since that time, I've been to a total of three of your meetings.

Each time I came bearing gifts, which I'll get to those next.

But during that time, I have not only Mr.

Donald.

Don't want to um shortchange you with this.

But if you would uh go to the item, I will get to the item development.

I tasted the city.

I'm going to respond to him.

Go ahead.

I want to because I want to make sure that I'm being responsive.

And so every time you call, I respond.

This last time that you left the message, you left it at three o'clock during work time.

You text me at 11 p.m.

and I responded back to you at that time.

All of the time, I've never ever shown you a lack of respect.

That's despite being uh what is it called, Mr.

Thousand Dollar Man, and should I be earning that salary?

That's despite, you know, during the winter snowstorms, you know.

I'm glad you make 1,400 a day.

Yes, okay.

1400 days.

I don't think I am going to that's what you make.

But when you stand up there and you tell us, Councilmember CAO, Councilmember Trammel.

Hey, his not me.

And I'm asking for those started.

To go to the specifics.

I'd like Mr.

Donald, if you would please respond to the item that was raised by Ms.

Trammel relative to individuals and taxes.

He's attacking me.

That's I'm saying it's not a public for anyone.

And I told you.

Okay, we're going to cease and desist with this.

Understood.

All righty.

So we can start here for the FY 2027 budget work session.

Excited to be here with you today to talk about, you know, one of the most important parts and the thing that has caused the most interest amongst our council, which is the CIP.

Always start with the mayor's seven pillars because that is how he has decided to shape the government.

Highlighting everything from a thriving city hall that gets things done all the way to a city that tells his story.

What's interesting about today is the CIP is one of the parts of the city for which we really get to tell our story, but we don't always do so in the way we deliver the projects.

Today, I think we're going to have an opportunity to do that.

So what we're sharing today, I would say is a little bit more than just the numbers.

It's about how we invest our infrastructure, our systems, our services, the things that the residents rely on every day.

Remain fiscally disciplined while continuing to improve on how we serve Richmond.

That's important because this is a very tight budget year, really tight year.

But despite that, I think the mayor has provided a budget that does a little bit of everything.

But one of the areas where we've been focused on making sure we fill in some of the gaps is around the CIP.

Today's presentation will kind of walk through these mayoral priorities.

But it will also kind of align these priorities with a look back at what we've accomplished in the in the last year, as well as the FY27 proposed budget and capital investments, and what you can expect moving forward.

One of the keys that we want to look at and just what the capital improvement plan does.

And I know all of you understand that, all of you know that before the edification of the public, I did want to just highlight a few things.

So let's ground ourselves in the CIP and what it is.

So it's the city's primary tool for planning and funding major infrastructure investments over time.

That is essentially what our CIP is.

Focuses on the projects that bill maintain or replace our physical assets.

You know, they're more like the long-term investments and how you support the city functions and the growth.

Now, the more we grow, the more we need good sewer, the more we need strong and quality roads, all of those things have an impact.

They're delivered across all of our departments, and you'll see those listed there, really the high-level departments and service areas that matter most in CIP.

So we'll talk about general services today.

We'll talk about the Department of Public Utilities on and on, but also don't want to leave our schools, libraries.

At a high level, the capital improvement program is about planning ahead so we can invest in the infrastructure that these residents rely on most.

This is kind of where the balance we balance the needs of maintaining that aging infrastructure, supporting the growth and advancing council and community priorities.

It's a very unique piece.

I know recently we were having a conversation about you know having to go in and replace a pipe, one of which I used the example in Augusta and found out we had the same thing here in the city of Richmond, a wooden pipe, you know, found that you have to replace.

That's how old some of the infrastructure is, because again, across these United States, you'd have to uh pull up tons and tons of underground infrastructure to be able to pre resolve most of these problems which were cost in the billions of dollars.

It also gives us a structured way to evaluate projects across departments and make sure we're investing in the areas that will have the greatest impact.

With that, um I wanted to kind of highlight and take an advantage.

We're doing uh our budget presentation a little bit differently uh this year, and so we have made a lot of adjustments.

I think all of you have seen them.

I think we've seen all of the adjustments that we've made uh moving forward, whether it be the timing, uh how we have the DCAOs present, et cetera.

And I wanted to take a second because one of the people who leads our CIP work uh is Mr.

Michael Nixon Garrison.

And many of you may not know his name, but Michael has put together our entire uh CIP program and leads it.

He's the programs and operations manager in budget, and he's been with the city about eight years.

Uh he's got a bachelor's degree in economics, a master's degree in urban and regional planning, both of those right here at home in VCU, and he's part of Leadership Metro Richmond class of 2026.

And for the bulk of this project, uh Mr.

Nixon Garrison will actually do the presentation.

So I ask that you be kind to him and uh allow him to present the details of our presentation and our proposal for CIP today.

His nickname is the Oracle because he knows all things related uh to the to the CIP, and I would just ask that we pause the clock so that we have an opportunity for us to kind of switch spaces so that the Oracle can present the balance.

All right, Mr.

Orr.

Oh man, that's a new one.

Welcome.

Thank you, thank you.

Just want to make sure I okay, there we go.

So thank you, CAO Donald, Madam President, members of council.

Again, Michael Nixon Garrison, or the Oracle now, program manager for budget.

So before diving into FY27, I wanted to briefly share how your previous investments are being implemented, starting with the planning documents that guide our work.

Whole street is being transformed in different areas with streetscaping, sidewalks, a shared use path, and bridge replacement.

And those are a combination of projects to build on goal nine of Richmond 300.

The improvement of streets and bridges to expand connectivity for all users.

LED street lighting conversion is the energy efficient goal of RBA Green 2050.

And one of the Richmond Connect's priority projects, phase one of improvements to Richmond Highway is about 50% complete.

So on the screen in the front of you, you'll see examples of projects across all nine districts that are either in planning, under construction, or recently completed.

That includes the fire stations and community center community centers you see, as well as pedestrian safety improvements at the intersection of Sims, Forest Hill, and Dundee Avenues.

So Mayor Bula is proposing a total of $805 million for the FY27 CIP.

76% of that is bonds and gener in cash generated by the utility fund.

18% is bonds generated by the general fund.

And 6% is Federal, State, and Regional Transportation Funding awarded to the city.

Now, if we look at it from the from the expenditure side, on the screen, you'll see a breakdown of how projects are categorized in the CIP along with the totals for each category.

And you see up there again that totals up to that $805 million I just mentioned.

Now, in his overview a few minutes ago, CAO Donald listed the departments involved in CIP, and for this presentation, we'll focus on the proposed CIP from a departmental view.

Let's get started with general services.

So for general services, the mayor is proposing the acceleration of plan year funding into FY27 for the John Marshall Courts building, as well as $14.3 for maintenance work in city facilities and $11 million in short-term debt for vehicle replacement.

Okay, moving on to public utilities.

So utility projects for FY27 include $14.3 million for flood system maintenance.

And that includes the removal of two dams at Bryan Park and improvements to the flood wall and levy system.

The $54 million that you see up there for stormwater is focused on improving drainage and flood-prone areas.

The $254 million for wastewater up there.

Out of that $254 million, $180 million of that is proposed to ensure effective operation of the wastewater treatment plant.

And that $237 million number you see up there, $130 of that is proposed to improve the water treatment plant.

For transportation within public works, the mayor proposes continued investment in the complete streets program at $21 million per year.

Specific to FY27, funding is proposed to support replacement of the Arthur Ash, Lombardy, and the Whole Street over Manchester Canal Bridges.

Now all of those projects are set to be advertised for construction bidding this year.

I also want to highlight some of the proposed program investment in pedestrian safety, including $4.4 million in intersection improvements, and that includes left turn lane hardening and high visibility crosswalks.

Still on public works.

Here you'll see some of the individual projects.

This includes continued investment in the Fall Line Trail and Whole Street Improvement Projects, as well as projects that are currently in planning and design, like Broad Street, Cherokee Road, which I will note DPW completed a new study for last year, and the Shaco Valley Streets Improvement Project.

Housing.

So under housing, 10 million is proposed in FY27 and FY28 for the equitable affordable housing program.

And 1.6 million is proposed in 27 for infrastructure, including paving, undergrounding of utilities, and curb and gutter as part of the Creighton Court Redevelopment Project.

Parks and Rec.

So for Parks and Rec, $5 million is proposed for the Browns Island Improvement Project, which you I'm pretty sure you're all well aware of.

This is a joint venture with Richmond, excuse me, a joint venture with venture, a joint effort, there we go, with Venture Richmond, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

And Parks and Rec also has 6.2 in maintenance work or funding for maintenance work across various parks and facilities.

We propose continued investment in the percent for art program at 250,000 per year.

I just want to point out, you know, we talked about fire stations being completed.

A great example of the work that's done by Percent for Art is if you go past Fire Station 12 on Carey Street, you'll see a display, a ladder display in the window, right?

So that was funded through this program.

With the police department.

So Richmond and its surrounding county share the cost of maintaining and operating a patrol, well, three patrol planes as part of a metro aviation unit.

One of those planes is reaching the end of its service life and has limited capabilities, placing a strain on the other two planes.

I also want to note that last year Richmond alone used the planes 300 times.

So funding for the share of the city's share of the replacement cost is proposed in FY27.

Public libraries, and you guys heard a lot about that in the previous presentation.

Last year we adopted 1 million for a public library upgrades with funding being, as you heard earlier, used to explore the expansion of Westover Hills, Belmont, and the East End libraries.

So the mayor's budget proposes another million in FY27 27 to continue making those improvements.

Schools.

So with schools, funding from the plan years has been accelerated to FY27 to fully fund the RPS maintenance request.

And looking ahead, our investment in new schools will continue in FY29 with our second 200 million dollar installment of school modernization funding.

The previous FY24 installment is being used to fund the ongoing construction at Richmond High School for the Arts.

And then last but not least, Mayor Bula is proposing to replace both the burn tower at the fire department's training facility as well as breathing apparatus equipment for our firefighters at a total cost of 2.9 million in FY27.

And I just want to provide a little bit more context on that.

The burn tower was actually condemned in 2018.

And the year that I just mentioned is reaching the end of its useful service life.

You guys have all made historic investments in replacing fire stations over the past few years.

And this proposal will keep fire training space and equipment up the par as well.

So with that, I'll turn it back over to the CAO.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You have about five minutes.

The bench at Richmond runs deep.

Very talented gentleman.

Has really put all of the council's thoughts, ideas, and desires, as well as the mayor and the previous mayor, put all of those ideas and identified funding for all of them to be able to deliver for each one of your districts and throughout the city.

So extremely happy to have them, but also to be able to elevate his talent and let you know some of the people behind the scenes doing the work on your behalf, and we couldn't do this without him.

And I think that is, you know, really a part of how I wanted to close out because there are a couple of things that are in here that I just wanted to double down on.

I know that y'all have received it, but it was important for us to just kind of highlight in this document or in this presentation.

Just you see here investments in District 6.

Hopefully you can see all of yourselves, district two, three, and six here.

Those districts being so close together.

Of course, you're represented way more than just this, but I thought it was a good idea to maybe highlight for the council just all of the different ways in which the investments are being spread across the city so that you know and understand how those investments are.

And then even some of them don't necessarily belong to a district, but they help us with everything from our uh crime fighting and public safety, including the shared cost that we have with our other localities as well as with the libraries which spread across the city.

Uh and then highlighting, I do want to spend some time to just highlight the uh John Marshall Courts building.

Uh one of those things that just kind of fell in my lap, didn't really realize uh that we would have that challenge coming in uh to the city, but blessed to have to resolve one of those issues in the past.

And uh what we did uh is really accelerate the uh improvements to the John Marshall Courts building in this year, where you'll see all of those funds allocated moved into year one.

Um, apparently, this is a 26-year issue in which they have been looking for a new court home or some type of safety improvements.

This process will allow us to both look for that home and identify that permanent home while making the one that they have currently uh suitable, fit, and safe for not only the folks delivering the services, but people who are seeking justice every day.

Also uh the short-term debt uh for vehicle replacement plans is something that is important.

I know this council has been very engaged in those activities, and so using those short-term bonds to fund fleet and FY27 as the usual cash transfer from the general fund balance to uh the operating budget.

Uh cash funding is then planned from FY28 through FY31.

That is just to highlight what our strategy is and also just kind of double down on that.

We're listening to council and the way you want us to coordinate our activities, and so we will be using a more pay-go capital uh process moving forward.

And so there are variety of projects to note, and I'll just close with the Mayo Island redevelopment.

Um we're looking at the people's budget program for which we'll be issuing a report on that here soon with the GRTC bus shelter and bench installation project uh that was voted on, pine camp facility improvements, uh which are coming forward and a host of others.

I'm trying to uh make sure I finish ahead of the uh the 20 minutes, but one key thing that I do want to highlight that will be important as we move forward, and I think is an innovation that we're adding to the CIP is just having a CIP GIS dashboard, which we plan to launch and deliver within this fiscal year, which will be very helpful because when you ask where's my project, you'll be able to see it.

And so one of the things that we're committed to and should be able to deliver uh this year.

And so with that, Madam President and Council members, I will uh close and uh myself and uh the oracle will be made available to answer questions.

Thank you, uh CAO Donald.

And before we go to the questions, um your uh members of the various entities within the portfolio did a hand clap.

I want to give a resounding applause for all of the work that all of the entities, all of you.

I you back there, right?

That's right.

Can I can we give an applause for the work that just want to say thank you?

Um some heavy lifting.

Uh Mr.

Uh uh Morris and others are clumped around down at the few places and over at when you talk about the burn tower.

I think uh with RFD, I don't know if you still do it, but council members came over fully garbed.

I'm not sure how anyone maneuvers in that uh to try to just get a sense of what that is and going out on rides with our police department and you know it is uh thank you.

I want to say thank you to all of you for extraordinary work uh in our city.

With that, we'll go to um questions.

Uh council member, oh and I'm sorry I didn't know you were referred to Mr.

Nixon Garrison as the Oracle.

I'll take that correction.

Thank you very much for that presentation, and we'll start with Councilwoman Jones.

Um I hate to say this, but I'm not ready.

So I can either submit my questions later or if you come back around after everybody else goes.

I'm okay.

You can feel free to submit, would be great.

Vice President Jordan.

Um thank you so much.

Obviously, with the increased gas prices, I think folks are looking at alternative ways to get around town.

And one that you know is increasingly popular, um, you know, it's getting wrong by bike.

And wondering if someone is available to speak to, so I know we have money.

This is so minor compared to the scope of CIP, but uh just because it does cross multiple districts.

Um, how folks go about requesting bike racks, and we've had individual businesses interested in having them located.

Um I know different corridors you would benefit, but again, sort of a small question, but stalling for other people so they have more time.

Oh, I understood.

Well, so you want to come up and answer that?

Yeah, I mean, we are there's a process in place in which you can make those requests, and I know that the new uh department of transportation will play a role in that as well, but we'll allow Mr.

Vincent to come up and answer that question.

Welcome, Mr.

Vincent.

Good afternoon, council.

I'm not Mr.

Vincent today.

I'm Neil.

The Oracle, the Matrix.

Oh, come on.

Okay.

We haven't been here that long today.

If you will send us the list of, you know, we can work with you all of the different thank you.

Okay.

Good to see you all.

Um yes, ma'am.

If if anyone would like to request bike racks, bike racks are something that we tend to install with our streetscape project.

So we do have um dollars available within our budget to be able to install them in a reasonable fashion.

And they can certainly reach out to the Department of Public Works for that.

Thank you.

Much appreciated.

So I'll um submit those individually.

Thanks.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Gibson.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I have questions about a couple of things.

So if you could talk a bit about safe streets for all, I'm still I'm still trying to understand it.

So the way I see it in a budget, there's 20 $2 million that's allocated, I believe, for the cost of the program.

Um and that's flat at $2 million in fiscal year 26 and then $2 million in fiscal year 27.

And then $2 million for fiscal year 27 for the red light camera enforcement.

When I see like big round numbers like that, it just I just want to understand you know, see a bit more detail because two million dollars is so rough, and I know people's you know uh salaries are changing and such.

So I I want to understand more granularity in terms of the cost of the program and then where that money is going.

Um, because then I see on page 467 the implementation of that program is uh it looks like 762,000.

Like I I guess I would like more clarity around vision zero.

That's my first question.

My other question, I have three, is about the people's budget.

Um page 467 shows 1.7 million dollars um in people's budget funding, and it and it doesn't appear that any of the money has been used.

So I I want to understand how much of that money has been spent.

Um and and within that, there was funding.

Um, I guess my third question is related to my district, which is the Pine Camp Project.

I want to understand um what the status is of that project in specific.

Thank you.

Uh so one was Vision Zero, but you didn't really ask a question.

You said you wanted more clarity, but you didn't say what you wanted more clarity on in a budget meeting.

I would love to be looking at the budget, you know.

So if you are amenable to it, if we could pull the budget up and look at at how the vision zero funding, like what these various buckets are and and how that's working.

Yeah, I don't think this would be the time for us to do that.

I I think we can definitely meet with you because that's I think you're asking us, are you saying like teach you the budget of the breakdown of Vision Zero?

An itemized budget you're looking at for that.

Yeah, I mean it's particular.

Um I mean, look, we're we have had an increase in pedestrian deaths in the city, and our solution to that is this business zero program.

And I and I think it's important for us to understand how that funding is being used.

And Vision Zero is one part of it, but it's not the only part.

So I mean, I think you mentioned the investment in red lights, which plays in the vision zero.

The uh devices that we utilize on streets, whether it be our speed humps and roundabouts.

I mean, it's a comprehensive effort to deliver public safety activities, is also part of the reason that the Department of Transportation is stood up.

So I'm I don't think it's just a look at the funding allocated to Vision Zero, but it's a look at the whole budget.

But again, I think if you were asking a specific question, or if you were looking, uh you're asking for such a broad, you're saying, hey, explain vision zero to me.

That's kind of yeah, um I'm not certain.

I think I need a little bit more guidance on what you're looking for, because what you're asking for is pretty bland.

And you're saying pull up a pull up the budget for you, but I I think some of those questions because we received a lot of questions, which we're answering, but I'm not certain what questions the staff is not what insight they're not providing.

So I need a little bit of just clarity.

So if we get the specific questions, I I um to you, um, and we'll have staff do that to be able to respond to council member Gibson's inquiry, but the specificity I think is needed is what, but also in terms of specific allocations for what within the buttons all of those kinds of things, if I'm hearing correctly.

So we'll get that to you so that you can get that back.

Okay.

I mean, I I personally think this should be a straightforward exercise.

I can provide you with the page numbers.

We could put them up on the screen, and you could just speak to what those various elements are.

The first time that vision zero is referenced to the budget is on page 326.

Okay.

Do we have to I think we'll bring you come on up and answer this if you can.

I'm still not sure what the question is.

I guess I'm yeah.

Thank you, sir.

Good afternoon, Bobby Vincent, Director of Public Works.

Um I think the so the situation with regards to vision zero, vision zero is more of a concept.

And it's not just a concept for the city of Richmond, but it's a concept that's worldwide.

And uh it's almost the same vision as trying to have crime reduction dealing with police.

So there's various line items that relate to vision zero throughout the city's budget.

Just about every project that we have with regards to paving or traffic calming or streetscapes goes back to vision zero because it's a concept.

So we're now designing our streets, designing our CIP projects to take into account pedestrian safety, bicyclist safety, as well as vehicle and driver safety.

So when you look at vision zero as a whole, it's a concept to make certain that people are aware that people are driving in a cautious manner, that people are buckling up, that people aren't drinking and driving, and that people are obeying the um guidelines set forth by the MUTCD guide um standards, which are put forth by the Federal Highway Administration.

So some of your municipalities, which just about every state in the United States has a vision zero program now, particularly in our high um density areas and also throughout the world and Africa, Europe, Asia.

It was actually founded in Sweden.

And so we adopted that program in the United States in order to move forward with it.

So with regards to your question about um safe vote for schools, we have some specifics that we can provide for that with regards to um funding.

But with regards to vision zero, as the CAO indicated, that's a broad um perspective that really impacts almost every line item within our budget.

Thank you.

I get to you, ma'am.

Y'all, this is not that complicated.

So we're talking about streets, Miss Lynch.

I know exactly what you're saying.

Ms.

Lynch, and that's it's not lynch, that we can't do that.

I would love for my time to be paused because I I'm this is I feel like I'm running, I'm getting the clock is running down, and I'm asking multiple times.

I would like to pull up the budget and discuss page 326 during our budget work session.

Is there something in particular there?

Are you just wanting to go through the but I'm not saying I think this was helpful?

Are you asking where sidewalks are currently?

That's what you're asking.

You're asking where sidewalks are located and activities such as that.

Because I'm looking at the budget page now.

So red light camera for example.

Sure.

What did you do with that?

And we'll pull that up.

I got it right here.

I just think I'm just asking for the specific question.

So on page 326, there is two million dollars allocated for that was allocated in both fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27 for the photo speed enforcement program.

I want to understand more specifics as to what that is.

Yeah.

Oh no, but it's not it looks like y'all are asking for different things.

I thought I it looks like y'all are asking for different things.

I was trying to be helpful.

But this is well, you said it, and I'll just repeat it and not take y'all's time.

But you want line items for every single dollar that is allocated within these areas.

So you want a 4,000-page budget book, but which is yeah, I'm not gonna say it's fine, but if I knew specifically what you're trying to learn more about, we can pull some information for you.

But looking at page 391, because I don't have the other one, this was shared with me, where it talks about West included.

You've got the description and the scope, so is all of your traffic common measures are lumped in here, your pedestrian safety and crossing, your ADA enhancements, your uh traffic control devices that I just relate to you, as well as the various programs and how those funds have been spent in the past.

I think you're looking for individual uh request, what this two million.

Yeah, so it's listed in here.

I'm yeah, so I I still need some specifics because I I think I understand what you're saying.

I don't think it's the same as what this council member is saying.

You want more detail within various areas, but what type of detail are you looking for?

Because that would be in your specific questions.

So you've got two million allocated for photo speed enforcement.

So you know that the first responder uh wellness program is where that two million dollars sits, is under criminal justice services.

You know, the purpose is to promote well-being of current and retired first responders, the funding opportunities intended to provide resources to agencies and nonprofit organizations.

Sounds like in that area you're gonna be looking for the specific projects.

You wouldn't necessarily have that laid out in your budget book, but I'm not sure.

That sounds like what council member lynch is looking for.

Well, at the moment, we're we're gonna address, we'll get to council member.

I'm gonna wanted to get clarification here with council member Gibson.

Yeah.

Um I I we are in a process of looking at a budget to determine if it's gonna meet the needs of city residents.

And we've seen multiple city residents die.

Yep.

And uh and and what I'm understanding is that it perhaps it may not be reasonable for me to expect that there would be information in this budget enough to determine if what we've allocated towards this effort is sufficient to prevent future residents from dying.

That that's that's what I'm trying to get at.

I would recommend that we dedicate a future meeting here in OD to look really specifically at Vision Zero funding, how much money we're getting from these speed cameras and red light cameras, how it's being allocated, and and what we've done with that funding specifically, understanding that that funding is supplemented by additional federal funding.

I want to have a comprehensive understanding about how this money is being used to ensure that our residents are going to be safe.

You could ask some of those questions with the I think right now we're at about 600 questions that have been asked total that we responded to.

Uh I'm not sure again, you want a work session on this part of the budget.

I think you mentioned you like work sessions on a lot of the various parts of the budget.

I'm still trying to understand the individual question that you're asking because we believe that we have put together a budget that helps to move us closer to vision zero.

So we'll we'll work to determine the best um strategy to make sure that the questions that the council member is asking gets answered, whether that's individual or OD or whatever the case and get back to you and staff.

Okay.

Thank you.

So the other question that I had was regarding the people's budget.

Has any of the money, the 1.7 million dollars allocated been used?

And then just to finalize my questions on the CIP, I would also like to understand a bit more information about the fiber optic program.

There was 1.2 million dollars that was allocated in last year's budget.

This year's budget, it's been modified so that there's no future allocations through 2028, and I want to understand what is going on with that program and what the plans are.

Thank you.

Well, if our leaders come back on uh fiber optics on the people's budget, as you know, uh that group was actually with council up until a couple of months ago, and so there was a total of I think three million allocated uh with whatever y'all did last year.

I'm not fully up to speed on that.

So what we've done is basically revamp the full program.

You've got 1.7 million that was voted on.

Those uh dollars have been allocated in the budget and they've been assigned to specific projects.

We've been working with Mr.

Slatz and his team since we brought them on so that we can provide full reporting.

Um, some of that was actually included, that process was included in the budget supplement that I provided you that tells every area in which those dollars have been allocated, where has been spent and what the status of those projects are.

Next step for us is to then give you a full report on those allocations and the status update for each one.

That's not complete yet.

They just transitioned over to us about two months ago when that process was completely done.

So we're still going through that process.

But we've allocated all of those 1.7 million, I believe, and then we're doing a review of an additional 1.3.

So no funding has been spent yet.

That's not true.

I didn't I didn't say that.

I said right now I don't have those numbers in front of me, but I've already provided it to you in the budget supplement that I provided about two days after the budget transmitted letter and the budget was transmitted to you.

Did you get a chance to check that out?

I guess I'm unclear.

I've I've reviewed the materials.

What I'm unclear is is why it it appears in the this budget document that no money has been spent.

So I just wanted to understand you know what that status is and if there's other documentation that's showing something different.

It is, and I I provided it to you already, but I'll actually reissue it to all of council, but it's also on our budget page.

It's actually I think it was the 13th of March, and it's the first bullet on the budget page, and I believe it's about halfway through there, which would be around page 16 or 17, and it breaks down the entire process, including when they were transitioned to the administration and what steps we've taken as well as what dollars have been allocated and spent.

Thank you, yes, ma'am.

Councilmember uh Tremmel.

I just like to um I guess we're going back to the we won't go back to the first part, but we're going back to the budget as far as with the seniors for their tax relief and things like that.

But I just want to say too that I know that I, as a council person doing this for 25 years, that I know I'm not able to tell you or the mayor who to fire, who to hire.

Is that they work at the pleasure of you all, so we do not council members don't have the authority to question you or the mayor about who you hire, who you fire, especially when I heard the other day that southern people in HR was let go, and one two of them are pregnant.

But anyway, I know you don't have to answer that one.

But anyway, you would talk about the um you know there I think 30 days they have to leave, they're no longer have a job.

And that's really broke my heart because um council member, do you have specifically?

But OD, if you can help me understand as far as how do how do these seniors how were they taking off of tax relief?

We're gonna if you will we'll do something.

So I thought that's what you said.

Initially, I was trying to get through the questions on CIP and then have uh CAO Donald answer specifically.

Okay, I'm good with with that.

Oh, yeah.

I'm good with all of that.

We will have somebody I know we're gonna be out at Hickory Hill.

We agreed to that once a month.

I think you asked for that, and we're gonna have that, so we're gonna do a special session for that.

But I've also in between the time that you asked that initial question in the previous budget session and now I've actually asked our team to go ahead and review that.

What I've also asked is because I know you I got your voicemail when you mentioned this to me, um, along with the mayor, we have asked that our newly formed transformation office give a look at why this is apparently happening so that we can resolve it in the future.

Um, along with the mayor, we have asked that our newly formed transformation office give a look at why this is apparently happening so that we can resolve it in the future.

So we'll make sure to take care of that.

Okay, then another thing.

So it's something that brought up about the um it was about the this happened back, I think in 2020 with the fire department about the burning towers, something about the burn building, yes.

Yeah.

Let's make sure we do not put that in the 8th district.

In the wet night in the 8th district, do not put that in the actually outside of the city.

So it is where is it?

Santa and Rico.

So it's in here in RICO, and uh we actually I don't know if we have the presentation up, but that is the location, and we are investing in it to improve it, make it better, and then of course it's a burn building, so you gotta do repairs and all that good stuff, but it will remain in here in RICO.

There are no plans to move it or anything of that nature.

We've we've got it taken care of and uh adding some additional maintenance prepare.

It's not this one, it's the it's either before or after that.

But it's it's in your presentation, and we're leaving it there.

We're just adding additional resources for it.

So maybe you could bring that to the public safety meeting or whatever.

Have you got a lot of different things?

Yes, sir.

I'm sure G would love to do that.

Yeah, give an update on the funds that we've allocated and how we use it.

And then just one more thing, that's all.

Can I have the 8 million?

I mean, 800,000, not no eight million, eight hundred thousand for the Richmond Am Lamps Authority.

Council Member Tram.

I know she says she's got a lot of things.

I just want to say I didn't say it to you.

Okay, thank you.

But thank you for trying.

I I know, but I didn't want to be said I didn't say.

I got it.

No, understood.

I I would um just highlight because I do know that as in our CIP, we did allocate a million dollars, uh, which is more than what was projected and more than we committed to to the Richmond Ambulance Authority.

I actually also sent out a memorandum to the council, including um our partners at RAA to highlight our investments in the proposed budget, which includes everything from CIP investments again, which were more than in uh more than recommended, but also uh the overall budget to include the subsidy is much higher than committed as well.

So I did want to highlight that, and we provided that presentation to the council um previously.

If you would like us to, we can resend it, but I believe it is already in your possession.

I think we are in receipt of it.

However, um I am no I am, and other members are desirous of having some more conversation about that.

Understood.

Yes, and before the week is out.

So understood.

Okay.

Um I'm back to council woman Jones.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Donald.

Uh, a couple of questions in the active improvement plan on page 467.

Uh is there a way that we could get a um list of or yeah, list of the neighborhoods in Bloom projects.

So 467 is list of neighbor, and you're gonna get those to me, Mr.

Warren, those questions, right?

Okay.

So your questions are from three 467.

We've got page 312 and we've got page 391 from uh council member lynch.

So I think Mr.

Warren is keeping track of those.

But okay, so if we could get a list of the projects that were included in this six million dollars for neighborhoods in bloom.

Um can you speak to or whomever the new curb and gutter program dash urban and the new sidewalk program dash urban?

Um what what are those specifically and what areas?

Yeah, you can come on up.

No, you're gonna be excited to talk about that.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Bobby Benson, director of public works.

Um those are general um projects that we wind up doing about 200 maintenance projects a year and just over 100 CIP projects that are assigned to contractors, and we pick those projects based on the availability and the need in the within the public right-of-way.

We do our best to try to prioritize them based upon um density, whether or not it's schools, um churches, um, or retail, as well as the density of traffic and pedestrian um pedestrian usage in terms of how we prioritize those.

Is it is it any reason why they specifically say urban?

Urban, yeah, just because of the city.

Okay.

Can we get a list of those as well of those projects?

Yes, ma'am.

All right.

So and glutter program and sidewalk program, the urban ones.

Then my next question.

Do you have that page?

I'm sorry.

Page 467.

467.

Thank you.

And then the next question I have is for parks.

Um the parks improvement projects.

Um under this 10 million, uh, it says improvement to parks throughout the city.

Is it possible that we can get a list of those, Mr.

Warren?

Okay.

Um these questions are for Mr.

Warren.

I'm assuming Well, in between, like I'm asking them to you.

Yes, he'll take compiling the list and his staff, and we'll get that back to you.

Yes, yes.

Thank you.

And then can we speak to the um the South Side Community Center project?

Um, it says construction of South Side Regional Park and Community Center.

Can I get some intel on that?

She said the South Side Park.

Uh Page four poor page 469.

Sorry.

Yeah.

That's the one that's already those improvements have already happened, but the uh what do you call it?

The uh what do you call it when you go through the punch list not complete?

So that's why that's still there.

So those funds until the punch list is fully complete and every item is done, it won't be closed out.

But we can get you a general status.

I wouldn't add that to your list.

Okay, so that's the funding that's left over on to the right of it.

Okay.

That's right.

Yeah, that's just uh uh small portion.

Okay, we do it, we have to include everything.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um right?

I'm familiar with that one now.

Yeah.

And I and I and my other question, like I'll just go back to that one with the neighborhoods blue program.

I didn't see that in the budget this year.

Is that in the budget again?

What the neighborhood the neighborhoods and blooms?

Was that in the budget?

Because I didn't see it.

No, that's active, yeah.

That's not that that doesn't continue forward.

No, I understand that it's active, but I'm asking, is there funding in the bank?

Oh, but to keep it going additional.

No, there is not.

Okay.

No, ma'am.

Okay.

That's why you don't see it.

I get what you're asking.

Um J comment.

We can keep the clock rolling.

Sorry.

All this is so confusing.

Keep it going.

Uh now these ones that are going to that are gonna end up going to Mr.

Warren.

If you like, you can just send those because some of those we may not have the answers for, similar to one of the council members asked something that we'll have to follow up on.

All right.

Um Councilmember Jones, do you have specifics that you'd like?

I did, but go ahead, because the pages is so confused.

Go ahead.

Just go.

Okay, so you'll get the rest of the questions too.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Councilman Breton.

Okay.

So I had a question about the utility um CIP.

I mean, there's a lot of uh additional spending this year, like hundreds of millions of dollars extra, which um I want to think is fantastic news.

Um I would normally want to rely on our public utility oversight commission to also weigh in on that.

Um they are a volunteer commission, they don't have any staff.

Um I'm interested to know is there anything preventing us from you um redirecting paygo funds to potentially fund a staffer for a commission um to help us get transparency into our utility spending.

You mean your capital funding your your cash allocation, you're saying to use your cash capital allocation to fund a staff member for your volunteer organization?

For the public the public utility oversight commission, but yes.

I would suggest doing that differently.

I think we if if that would be something that the council and mayor agreed to or was through your amendment process or however y'all coordinate that, you would just allocate a staffer and DP DPU to provide services to them versus using your try to use your capital dollars for an operating activity.

Okay.

Um also around this is around our bond financing.

Um so I know that we recently utilized uh funding from our uh Rain of Day Fund to fund the land transfer of the um Sports Backers Stadium.

I mean, is there anything preventing us, should we so choose to, of taking out a short-term or long-term loan to finance that and and replenish our rainy-day fund?

I'm sorry, say that.

Um so rather than take out bond financing to invest in the um uh sports backers stadium property, we we invested from the rainy day fund.

Is there anything preventing us from actually taking out a loan in order to replenish the rainy day fund?

Yeah, I think your bond capacity is just simply not that high, which is why we're trying to, and I think that's what the council is unified on us using a more pay-go-capital approach so that we can uh provide some some room, some capacity, our bonding capacity there.

You also didn't necessarily uh use your rainy day fund per se.

According to accounting principles, what you did is you provided a short-term lear loan, but it's an asset um that you have created.

But even those things have limits.

So I I think your accounting principles as well as uh the process that we recommended would be considered best.

As a matter of fact, um, later today, if we haven't announced it already, we'll be announcing some good news uh on our bonding activities uh coming forward.

We'll do that before the end of the day, which would show our process that we're utilizing now and how we are adding through our coffers through surplus, compressing our spending, as well as uh what we did with the 2% cut during their most recent visit.

We let our bondholders know about those activities and our our process is something that they're really focused on.

I think what you'll also see is that we'll be very focused on improving and investing in the future workforce, which includes Richmond uh public schools as well as some of our programming here in the very near future, and that also is a focus that will take us to that triple A level so that we can borrow money much cheaper and improve that capacity.

So I think the only thing that would be stopping us from doing it is what it would end up doing to our rating and how it would impact our overall bond capacity.

Yeah, I guess and given that it's central to our budgetary decisions.

I would looking forward to seeing all the information about our bonding capacity and how how we feel about where we are and how much extra capacity we have and don't do or don't want to use.

Yeah, now I know that um Davenport did a report about a month ago and included most of those documents that actually uh I'd call that our uh our our financial religious text when it comes to um our bonding capacity.

So I would refer you to that.

But if you have questions about it as you peruse it, we can answer any of those as well as bring them in to do so.

Okay, thanks.

Um so my questions are a little bit similar to what Councilmember Gibson was asking about next, they're related to our um safe streets for all and complete streets.

And I was wondering if I could get um I know we have about um 21 million for complete streets, 11 million for safe streets for all.

Would love to know the breakdown of what those end up going into, and if that's sometimes people can just like say those by heart, other times I need to get them by email, but I'd love to see what those are.

Got it.

So and I'm sorry, I'm just making sure because I know he's taking notes, but we're taking notes as well.

So it is the 21 million for complete streets.

And 11 for safe streets for all.

For safety for all.

Okay.

Are the same questions or they're similar?

I mean, well, similar vein as um, you know, we we say we're doing we we see all this money going, and it would be great to be able to explicitly say here are the things that we're doing to better understand that we're doing regularly.

You should be able to go back and tell your district, hey, this thing is coming.

I I get that.

Yeah, okay.

I follow you.

Um, I also know that a lot of that money comes from a six about sixty million dollars in special funds that relate to CDTA and um some other um uh street maintenance funds.

And so I was wondering if we were able to know that 32 million going to those two projects, where the rest of those 60 million of the special fund goes to.

That's the state the state streets and the CDTA.

Uh do we know what what else those special funds go to?

We probably should follow up with you on that question, unless you've got it right now.

Would you want to bring it back?

Oh there's about 60 million in in special funds.

Um I know that 2030 million of that goes to our complete streets and safe seats for all, but I was wondering where the rest of that 60 million goes in this for the special funds.

Yeah, you can come on.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Bobby Benson, director of public works.

Um the 21 million that goes to complete streets, the rest of the dollars go towards, which is about 40 million, go to urban forestry, street cleaning, uh roadway maintenance that takes care of everything within the public right-of-way, inclusive of sidewalks, curb and gutter potholes.

Um it also goes towards grounds maintenance with regards to all of the vegetation um control within the public right-of-way.

It also goes towards our right-of-way permit reviews that impact uh right-of-way maintenance and portions of traffic engineering um as well as street lights.

Um a significant portion of it goes towards street lights.

I believe it's about 10 to 11 million per year that goes towards not just the maintenance um and replacement of street lights, but also towards the actual power bill itself.

Okay.

Um thank you.

I may I may follow up with a more specific version of that question uh via email.

Okay.

Um I do have uh the budget question where I look at the safe streets for all and I see 10 million last year and I see 10 million this year.

Does that mean it wasn't spent?

Or like why is it when I see that like the budget document on page 467 says Safe Street for All is 10 million and available is still 10 million?

So the Safe Streets for All, the way that those funds are spent are based upon projects that are put out for bid for intersection improvements throughout the entire city.

So that's where all of our signalization projects come from.

Um some of our pedestrian signal signalization.

Also, when we um do some conversions of our um streets as well, that's where those line items come from.

So that's one line item budget, but it could have about 80 to 100 actual individual projects and/or intersections connected to it.

Okay.

Um now I know that uh lighter quicker cheaper projects, which are these quick build projects, they they won't last 10 years.

Um is there any does that mean we have to fund them through operations or or can we still use CIP?

Is that a like a is it still within policy to use CIP budget for a lighter, quicker short-term infrastructure project?

Um yes, sir, very good question.

And the way that we do that is through our planning.

So the way that our department is broken up into now it's um planning, implementation, um, as well as um being proactive.

What did I I had a name for maintenance?

So planning, implementation, and maintenance um of projects throughout the city of Richmond and everything within the public right away.

So anything that we're utilizing those state funds for um in relationship to planning implementation or maintenance, that's how we can utilize those dollars.

Okay.

Um I know that I've asked about this before is there's a school safety study recently that had a lot of recommendations for projects, and I would love to know the estimated uh amount for in order to actually fulfill those projects.

Um CIP, some of them are operational.

So, you know, it's like nine schools across the city.

Um would love to know what you know what it would take to fund those projects.

I'm sorry, could you apologize?

We were transitioning if you could repeat that question.

Yeah, there's a great school safety study for eight schools across the city with a bunch of recommendations, and I I want to know if they're not currently funded, what it would take to fund them.

Got it.

That's a question we'll just bring back.

Thank you.

And that's do you got that, Mr.

War?

Okay.

Um, I noticed there's a line item for called Bike Boulevard.

I'm interested to know just what what we've spent that on in the past two years, like what has that been used for?

Okay.

Bring that one as well.

And Mr.

Bradden, you have that one minute left.

Okay.

Um maybe an explanation for why the bike boulevard line item is separate from complete streets.

Yeah, I'm gonna answer that one.

Thank you.

Um, federal funds uh with the uh bike infrastructure and complete streets are state funded.

Okay, and can I confirm I saw we had two traffic signals on Patterson coming in recently and um can verify those were paid for with jet geo bonds and not grants?

Yeah, so yeah.

Both of those are geo bonds.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um I see a six million dollars of citywide traffic calming in the current year's budget of 26.

Um, would love to know what that was spent on or what it is being spent on.

Yeah, and we're still within this budget years.

I know some of those are active projects, but we'll get you updates on those.

Okay.

Um, a question about the RPD airplane.

Um, when did we commit to funding it?

And you know, how soon will another airplane like this come up for that decision again?

Yeah, so it's actually one of those projects that I mean we're committed to it when it passes in the budget.

And so that is the time frame, but there is a need currently right now.

Uh you usually I think the life cycle, what is it, about a decade or so of each one of those, and so we've been uh in conversations, and I think we're past our life cycle.

That's why it's starting to become a uh a life safety and public safety issue.

Um I know that if you again look at uh Henry, uh Chesterfield and our other partner locality budgets, you'll see it in there, and it is just a requirement for us to pay our fair share.

Yeah, I mean I know that like with with drone technology, I can imagine there may be ways to get similar outcomes with lower costs, and I was wondering if it was too late to ask that.

No, I think some of this is transport as well, right?

Which the plane is not just drone technology wouldn't cover, yeah, that's not they they're not aligned at all.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Breton.

Councilwoman Robertson.

Oh so the clock side when you call my name.

Yes, it does.

It does.

Okay.

Um I thought it started when I started speaking, but anyway, tell me um.

It's only 24 seconds.

Y'all gotta start that thing.

Y'all gonna have me up here all day.

She will have five minutes to ask questions.

I understand what it says.

I'm joking.

Um, so let's set the clock for five minutes.

Please.

Um question.

Where are we?

One of the things that we've talked about previously is trying to align CIP funding with shovel ready affordable housing.

Yeah.

So generally, I mean, we've made some great progress on that.

Um, you've seen the one, you've added more tools to your tool belt that help to accelerate uh the process for affordable housing.

Uh we've also done just uh better job of really highlighting wet projects are shovel ready and making sure that we fund them and then accelerate bringing those things through the board.

The I think it's also the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board is the name of it.

So we have made some progress.

I don't think it's a well-oiled machine just yet, but there has been uh some progress in both aligning our tools, making sure we get people through the pipeline a whole lot quicker than we have in the past, and then making sure that we get that approval through the board so that we can uh move things along.

The one catch though that I think is uh is I'm not taking your time, right?

I'm only using my time now.

Okay, okay.

So I'll just spend a second to um highlight that.

So with these projects, we fund a portion of it, but in some instances, while we approve it first, we are the last uh set of dollars that they receive.

They get our approval and then they go to the state and others to be able to uh get their deals approved.

So the average time frame, I think, from our approval to a shovel in the ground is ranging somewhere between 12 and 18 months, depending on where they are in that process.

So that is something that's not totally in our control, but getting those approvals on the front end helps to expedite the process, and that's something we've learned over the past few months.

So my my question, what I want to be sure of is that we uh have some provision in place so that if there is a affordable housing development that we approve, but infrastructure is critical to the success of that.

Yeah.

A process or policy process that we can allocate CIP funds for affordable housing is what I'm asking you for.

We may not have it in place, but I'm asking for that.

Yes, ma'am.

And we we don't have one in place now, but there is actually a process that we used in a previous locality where you're able to expedite and uh it's kind of like the mayor's one-stop shop um proposal that he has for permitting or whatnot to move those projects to the front of the line and also um be able to take care of some of those pesky uh infrastructure challenges, and we actually plan to bring those back before the council here in the next few months.

We'll go through the mayor first to make sure something that you know aligns with his vision, and then once he's got it locked in, we'll bring it uh before the council.

Okay, thank you.

Um the other question I have is in regards to the general fund general assembly requests we may combine sewer overflow as well as additional money to support uh water treatment.

Yes, ma'am.

You're asking for status or yeah, so I think the first portion, and you know, they're coming back to approve their budget, and so uh we'll continue to do our uh lobbying for additional resources, but there's already a joint commitment that is both in the House and the Senate.

I believe that number is 50 million.

Don't have it in front of me.

Um for that is the number, okay.

So 50 million, which only takes care of a portion, but it is the the I'd call it the down payment, which we need.

We're also advocating for additional funding and resources uh related to think one is uh our CSO, and then the other would be around our capital improvement funds.

And so that process is not done.

We're still at the State House.

We've been great partners at least for this year, and we do expect to see some benefit coming forward.

Okay, so I'd like us once we get past that stage of status and a strategy moving forward, just the outstanding.

The other is in regards to downtown central business district, that's a hole in the donut that's been there a long time.

Um how much funding is in this budget to take care of moving forward with the plans for the Coliseum as well as Mail Island and Browns Island.

Where's the funding in the budget for both of those?

Yeah, so the status.

The great part of this one is we've got external partners for which we pay into as well, because sometimes that gets lost.

That we are a paying member of Greca, we're a paying member of GRTC, we're paying members of all of these organizations.

That often gets lost.

And so for GR for Greca, uh, we are actually uh working through the RFP process for that now, and there is funding in Greca for the uh demolition that has already been allocated, uh, but it or we'll call it earmarked, but it cannot be fully allocated until we go through the process.

We've had studies that have been done that have shown the estimates and what I've seen over the past three years, those estimates range from around 40 to 70 million dollars.

Greca has those and they're prepared to support that regional uh effort.

And so those funds you won't necessarily see them uh within our budget, but that's because we've already made our contribution.

Uh you asked about Mayo Island.

There is funding in Mayo Island.

Mayo and Brown.

Yeah, it's been appropriated already.

Uh those funds have already been appropriated, and we'll make sure to get you the update on exactly where those are because those funds exist in the budget.

I yeah.

You can come up.

You know, Oracle man, come on.

You can bite my head off you.

Come on up.

I mean, you get to keep your head.

That's what I will say with the um with the Mayo Island one.

The project, the first phase of the project should be complete by October, I believe, because that was one of the conditions of the grant.

And then you asked about Browns Island.

The last five million contribution from the city is in the CIP.

Venture Richmond has already raised their funding, so they're working on that.

I believe the whole Browns Island thing and Parks and Rec can correct me, but I think that should be done by the end of the year.

And we have to provide, we do have to provide those funds.

I'm uh familiar with that one because I had a chance to talk to Ms.

Sims and their general counsel.

We're working with uh legal to make sure we transfer those funds when appropriate.

Good news.

Glad to hear that.

Um small area plans that we have in the district six point and Oak Row Bell Meet.

Are there any appropriation out of CIP to move these plans forward?

As we spent a lot of money on planning, but I'm looking for some kickoff.

Six point and bell me, we will add that to page 467, 312, 391, and then specific project six point and bail mead.

And I think that's just uh yes or no.

I'm just not familiar because we may name it under something else.

That's Bell Mead and Six Points.

I'm sorry.

But Bell Meet and Six Points.

I'll follow up with uh with those, and I know that's either a yay or a nay, it may not be uh allocated, but I like to double check and be factually correct.

Okay.

And for your housing I see for the equitable affordable housing initiative we you've got 10 million is it showing 10 million this year and next year in the budget?

Yes you're talking about for the this year I think it's 11.7 million total and you have that additional 10 million as a holding place and then based on whatever that 2.5 million dollar number I know you gave us a two year I probably shouldn't even be saying this on record but we got the grace period but the goal is to be able to coordinate whatever that formula is and provide those dollars in a combination of CIP and uh general fund dollars before we go fully into implementation following that transition period.

Okay.

In your CIP I see some budget dollars for Broad Street but my interest in knowing what we are doing really in the tourism zone for Broad Street it seems as if what I see may not be coming past second street.

Well so that's only part of the investment I think you also see 2500 in facade grants um that are also included in the budget those funds would be able to be coordinated throughout that uh area and the vision for it is to specifically be able to support where you're referring to as the tourism district to be able to assist those businesses.

Okay last question this ma'am I guess I can reserve my time if I don't use it all um y'all got to get his time I know we're good well two questions one well I want to know whether or not what's the timeline of finishing out Hoshkiv's field because we are trying to get that reopen as a um voting precinct.

I'm sorry which one is I apologize field on Brooklyn Pop add that to my questions to get the timeline back for you.

I I don't have that I think it's just that uh checklist point at the present time but we want to make sure that we have some timeline so that we can open it back up as a vote.

There's no problem I'll I'll follow up I just that one I don't have off the top of my head but I'll make sure to for us to bring that one back.

Okay and uh in your presentation slide number 16 it makes a lot of reference to public utilities my question is whether or not those funds come out of the enterprise I don't want to there's a little nuance there I'm gonna let the Oracle so outside of that 14 million for the flood wall that's the the floodball project that's bond funded geo bond funded like on the city's end everything else is the from the utility fund thank you very much and I reserved my time thank you for your questions council member Robertson if you have any additional please get to staff and we'll put them in the list to be able to for that one I did want to say there is there are a few projects like that when you have the enterprise fund what this council has done which I think is a great practice a lot of the larger most successful cities do it is you supplement some of those resources to accelerate projects and make sure they get started on time as you allocate resources and so you've done the same uh with that particular project so just wanted to highlight that some of your enterprise funds do operate like that.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Lynch all right um let's see where shall I where shall I begin?

Um so councilmember Bretton and Councilmember Gibson I think did a good job kind of addressing our and you're hearing it from the council that you know we we we place vision zero at a high priority given the fact that we've had 15 fatalities I think complete streets and what we were asking for more detail there would certainly be helpful and especially knowing now as Mr.

Vincent just said that over half of that 21 million and really it's only 19 million if you take out the two million for project design.

So I mean really we're working with nine million dollars to um address and respond to projects traffic calming projects that aren't already on our books.

All we have is $9 million, and that's got to do alley paving, public right-of-way maintenance, traffic calming measures, and repaving.

That's just not enough money.

I mean, I'm just just not enough money to do what we need to do.

I don't think that's accurate.

I want Mr.

Vincent to actually come and give you some insights on that.

I'll start and you come on up.

I mean, it's 250,000 to do one square block of sidewalk.

It's $349,000 to do a pedestrian hybrid begin.

I mean, I've eaten up, you know, a third of that claim right there.

You know, I think you want to let him explain because I think there are additional resources that we're I don't think we're looking at those dollars as an apple's two apples uh piece.

And then I'll give you some insights on just the holistic approach that we're we're doing.

You can go ahead and get started.

Good afternoon, Bobby Vincent.

All right, hi, Councilwoman Lynch.

Um, so the the dollars that you're referencing, you you're asking for them from where again?

Because we have sign we have more money than that.

Okay, so complete streets.

So if I come to you, as I often do and say, Bobby, we just had a serious vehicular accident, um, and there's been multiple, you've done years worth of traffic studies on this particular street.

We've got to have speed tables tomorrow.

What line item are you pulling them from?

I'm pulling it from uh combination of complete streets as well as CBTA dollars.

So complete streets is comprised of C B T C A.

That is the funnel for the local CBT save dollars that fund those types of speed tables, traffic infrastructure, et cetera.

Do we have a separate bucket other than complete streets that I'm not aware of that you have to do?

Yeah, complete streets uh well, let me go back.

Paving is $15 million a year.

We have five million of it that comes from CBTA and 10 million of it that comes from our geobonds with regards to complete streets.

Um the remaining dollars in complete streets make up for um the the other 21 million is where traffic calming, other projects of that nature um wind up coming into play.

We also get an additional roughly five to six million dollars annually from DPU for paving.

So when we pay, that's when we install um uh speed tables, and that's how we're able to install the quantity of speed tables that we do, in fact, install.

Yes, so what you just said is you have to get really creative with the GoBonds and the C V T C A money that we do have, but what do we have specifically allocated for traffic calming measures?

And I'm not just talking about speed tables, I'm talking about hybrid, you know, pedestrian beacons, raised crosswatch, et cetera, um wayfare signage, um, you know, the additional nice little flashing you're going this fast under the speed limit signs, all those things that we know cost quite a bit.

I mean, those those are high price, not to mention out of the same pot, you have alley paving, right?

No, ma'am, we don't we do alley maintenance out of the general fund.

Um but we're for that's what you're that's with the complete streets budget set.

I'm just going off what's in the so with with regards to looking at um pedestrian hybrid beacons, we normally get those dollars from state and or funded uh federally funded um grants.

And so that's the good part about us having several different line items within one line item budget because that's the way that we're able to move those projects around.

But if there's a specific location that is requesting a pedestrian hybrid beacon, we can put those in as a separate individual project.

And it oftentimes gets approved uh through state funding.

If not, then we can look at geo-funding.

Yeah, so and I think what would be helpful, and I'm gonna move off this, but I think I think the the general theme is it's hard to make a decision on whether or not we're allocating enough every year to traffic safety infrastructure, because we get those calls, right?

Yes, ma'am.

We are held responsible.

The citizens are looking at us saying, what are you guys doing to fund traffic safety infrastructure?

And why are we so behind other cities and municipalities that seem to really have it together when it comes to traffic infrastructure?

We have to say, well, because we don't have enough funding.

No, we we'd be definitely, I would never say that we don't have enough funding with regards to traffic safety.

I would also never say that we're behind other cities.

The city of Richmond is actually leading the way.

Um just left from Washington, D.C.

And uh we are at the same par as Washington, D.C.

What we're trying to change, which goes back to vision zero, it's a mental concept.

So it's very difficult for the Department of Public Works, City Council, the police, or anyone else, to stop people from drinking and driving.

To stop people from shooting up drugs and then getting behind the wheel and hitting someone.

So it's very difficult for us to do that.

So the way that we tend to do that is through awareness.

We go out there with education, we go out there with engineering, and we go out there with enforcement.

And that combination of efforts is what lowers the numbers.

But it's not going to lower the numbers to where nothing bad ever happens anywhere through our budget.

That that's not going to be what is going to stop everything.

Right.

But it will reduce the numbers and lower the probability of something of that nature happening.

100%.

It's a multi-prime approach.

Yes, ma'am.

I get that.

However, those bump outs, the speed tables, the hybrid pedestrian vegans, they've really worked.

So maybe we need to be funding more of that.

That's that's my my challenge question to you all.

Um second question is for the um for the water plant um and wastewater, the two projects that took 254 million and 237 million.

You all had a um kind of an estimate on what the average monthly bill would increase to.

Can you all just give us a straight you know answer on what what are these pro how many, how what percentage are we raising people's actual utility rates to fund those projects?

Got it.

Mr.

Uh Moore, Director Moore's is going to answer that question, but you moved away from that other question very quickly, and your time then comes out.

I get everything's faster.

So I want to make sure I uh uh answer that also more fully because there we've got two different uh perspectives here, and I want to make sure they're the same.

I think council is right in that we want urgency on death tragedy, preventable acts.

Like you're just right, you know, and while I think Mr.

Vincent is also correct that the perception is likely a little bit worse than the reality.

I mean, if you look at the statistics, our vision zero numbers, and you look at you know the our statistics, the efforts are working.

But one death is too many, it's vision zero.

And so we had a time period where I think it was like six deaths in like two months or something of that nature, and those were all behavioral activities.

And so it's a it's a lot, you know.

What do they say?

Uh uh ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

So we've got to do some of those things, but we also have to make sure, as y'all being the people who are going to receive the most calls, the most feedback from the public, make sure you know what we're doing.

So definitely taking your request uh seriously around the budget, but also think there might be a different avenue for us to be able to do like a uh CIP one-on-one, which we did, we had to do for the mayor and putting this together.

It looks like that could be helpful for the council because you're seeing something in this page and you're seeing something there, and together they all work together.

So we'll make sure to add that to our process to make sure you know where all of these uh resources are and that we're providing you the things that you need, especially because I know y'all are kind of district specific, making sure you know what's coming to your district, which is why we included it in the presentation here to make sure that we showed that.

For your second question, um, I think she's trying to identify just what is the potential uh rate increase, which I know some of that just before you come, I'll mention that some of that is dependent on our state partners.

We got a large percentage.

I won't say large, I'll say uh reasonable investment from the state uh based on our ask, and we're looking for additional resources so that we can keep those rates as low as possible.

But again, we won't know that until the special session.

I'll turn it over to you, Direct.

Um Director Morris Um, um the values that are in there are based off the average consumer bill.

So you know, looking at between like six and seven CCFs, um, but the rate increase for water is right around seven percent rate increase, um, and then sanitary is six point nine five percent rate increase.

And that's in perfect like seven percent every year.

That's for this year, and then projected in the near future as well until we get all these projects done.

Did y'all catch that?

That's that's quite an increase.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now we we will obviously be going through every year rerunning the rate model, um, trying to do some process improvements and efficiency improvements, um, trying to reduce those future needs and try to lower that as much as possible.

We have several initiatives already underway to try to improve and be a little bit more efficient in our operations.

So the hope that we have here is that we can reduce those as much as possible in the future.

Okay.

Um the other uh question that I had was in regards to parks.

Um the 900, was it 900 or 800 800,000?

Um that was um allocated.

Do you have a breakdown?

I think another council member might have asked that question, so I'll maybe I'll just skip that.

But but I'm also interested in a breakdown of where that 800,000 is going for parks for um the parks maintenance, the allocation.

Um then likewise in that six point two million.

Um just just wanting to note because we have a lot of pools in our in our district, and um that's uh it's a real gem to have that in the summer, but they cost a lot.

Maybe a lot of them are failing and have significant maintenance needs.

So I'm just wondering how much are we actually setting aside for aquatics out of that 6.2 million.

Yeah, we're all making 30 minutes.

Um that answer, I'll tell you part of the reason why we did some of the realignment that we did is because we're gonna be able to have some cost savings by aligning all of our maintenance activities, all of our uh I mean, some of it is ground maintenance, of course, but also our facilities maintenance and things of that nature, all under one umbrella will allow us to essentially have a master crew of availability to be able to do some of this work in-house, which means we'll resolve some of those cost issues of contracting it out.

But I know you're you're asking about a specific area, so I do have to follow up with you on that.

Okay.

And last question was in regards to the John Marshall courthouse.

That the total um estimated allocation for that or the proposal that we saw last was over 300 million.

We're for a new facility.

Yeah, so we're expediting 15 million to basically you know patch things up with bubblegum and shoelaces.

What have what have we gotten an official response or can we get a response from our stakeholders at the John Marshall courthouse on their and and you may know and you may be prepared to share on um what their resolve was in the 15 million and what they're asking for.

Yeah, so I mean, we're actually working with them regularly.

We'll be meeting with the chief judge.

Um I'm not sure if I I'm pretty sure I everybody has the letter and the correspondence that I sent out.

And so the first piece is the 15.6 million, just looking at other localities, some more expensive, some less, that will modernize that building.

It's not just patchwork, and not to mention we've already allocated quite a few dollars.

I think you saw in my report, I included pictures just so you can see what we've done for HVAC and all of those other areas, key cards, which look I'm gonna be honest, I'm shocked that those things had not been taken care of in all of this time.

And so our focus is to ensure that we keep everyone safe, they have a modern building, a modern facility.

Hey, our city attorney works over there.

We gotta make sure she can work over there and make it over here, you know, for for you guys.

So I mean we're we're making sure that we do that, but at the same time, I've also committed to a 60-day study, and we have brought in uh some additional resources to be able to see one, what the market shows.

So what is available and what facilities uh are even potential because I know that there's a conflict and whether we can lease or not.

I think there are just differences of opinion there.

Second piece is once we identify what's available, are there multiple uses that might allow us to utilize a facility, take on some of that cost, and uh utilize that they can utilize it as well, or is there something that they asked for that we can provide?

They are open to that, and we'll have a conversation here in the very, very, very near future so that we can really establish the lines of demarcation.

How does this 15.7 million, I believe it is, help, which I think it does, make the facility safe, modernize it, and provide things that have never been provided before.

That is vital because you can't just go somewhere tomorrow and have a turnkey place.

From what I understand, it's been about 26 years that this has been kicked down the can.

So we're committed to do something.

We've identified that in the 15.6 or 7 million.

Again, I don't have it in front of me.

I know you have your budget books, but we'll do that and so we've got to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time.

So that's the chewing gum, and the report is the walk into showing what we'll be presenting here shortly.

And like I've done before, I'll make sure to keep the council engaged in that and you'll ever report that they get, you will get the thank you.

Councilmember Amelbacher.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um asked some of the questions I was gonna ask around the DPU utility um rates, but I'll I will just echo my sentiment.

I'm interested in getting exact numbers because I think that seven percent year over year increase is uh correct me if I'm wrong, Director Morris, a little bit higher than the affordability index that we're trying to.

I thought I thought we were trying to stay under six percent.

Trying to stay under the affordability index, but I think that does keep us under the affordable, the affordability index.

Okay.

Um confirmation on that would be good.

Um back to the John Marshall Court.

I I can confirm now it does keep us on the affordable.

It does index.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Um back to the John Marshall Courts building, uh, I do appreciate the investment in um in the capital improvement of that building.

You know, one of the things that the they came to us uh in public safety last year was just sort of about overall, I guess what is have we before we're investing a ton of money in the courts building, albeit necessary.

Have we really taken stock into how that fits into the greater picture of the the downtown district?

Yes, ma'am.

That's actually some of that is included.

I've sent three memorandums.

I'm not sure if it's in the first, the second, it's not in the third, but our overall plans for downtown, including the demolition of the Coliseum, uh the future plans for that space, uh, as well as even looking at whatever, whether it be growth in city hall buildings that we utilize, uh, as well as what the market is doing downtown in general is a part of that.

Now that is in the third memorandum because uh one of the things we committed to doing is a market assessment so that we can make sure that our investments downtown, even the temporary ones, you know, uh align with what is left for the the current plans for downtown.

So, yes, it fits into those plans.

The market assessment is going to help and uh ensuring that there is safety and accessibility to the courthouse in the near term is vitally important, especially as you make those investments uh on the balance of downtown.

Okay, and then the um investments in city hall.

I know that Director Johnson at one point had mentioned uh I had asked the question around you know, when's the last time we did a space uh space study?

Um just given like what are we investing in the space of City Hall versus what is actually being utilized right now and what is the future state of utilization?

Yeah, so current utilization study I believe is underway now.

I have to follow up with uh Director Johnson and Ms.

Wiggins on that because it's utilization space, and then uh if there is a way for us to be a little bit more efficient.

I know uh I'm looking at the clerk's office, and I know they need uh some support, and we've done an assessment there because I think they need an additional space, so we're they can vouch for that.

We're looking at every nook and cranny within this building to be able to identify the best uses of space and aligning things appropriately.

One example of that, because uh the initial look at space and utilization, we did not have a space for uh emergency operations.

Apparently, they were going to the library and just kind of pulling stuff out of the closet during the water crisis, and so you had a bunch of challenges there, and so we used an available space that I think was a large conference room and made it into our uh basically our emergency operations headquarters, which we refer to as the MAG.

We're looking at all types of areas in City Hall and how we can better uh support and provide resources, including this space.

So then I was looking at the line items for uh fire station building maintenance and fire station renovations.

The fire station renovations, the prior year available is negative 200,000, and then the the building maintenance is we're we're hovering at just you know 400,000.

Having gone to many of these fire stations, knowing that they are in dire need of modernization and repair, it what is like what is the city, what are we saying with this number um in terms of our commitment to uh the firefighters?

I mean, some of the fire stations still don't have adequate separation of the genders at this point.

So I'm I'm wondering like how are we how are we working to invest in that?

They don't have several uh I'm I would we should it's bootlegged.

Let's just say that.

Yeah, I mean the first it's not cute.

The first thing is we've just got to improve our facilities.

That's something.

I mean, I just say you can follow my track record everywhere I've been, the facilities have been improved for our public safety rock stars.

They the people we run it from danger, they run into it.

So we got to make sure that they're taken care of.

So one of the things like you, I visit all the fire stations as well, spent the night at which one was that, Chief?

The busy one?

11.

Spend the night at 11.

I'll be spending the night at one.

And what's the is two of them I'm supposed to do next?

Yes, also five.

Five, one and five.

So, you know, we are doing an assessment not only uh through the specialist, but doing it ourselves.

So making sure that we see what's going on there and investing appropriately.

I think in one of them, the one that is I think negative 200,000, that's because we overspent to make sure to deliver and get the job done.

Uh, but I would say our investment in our firehouses, our apparatus, and all of those things are on track, but we want to do more.

And you see some of those investments in uh the CIP.

I want to highlight a couple of those fire stations in particular, because I know there are a couple of them that are uh you know going to get in the finishing touches, but then others that are on track.

So uh I think the numbers you're referring to, I think those are was that in the active project section?

Like the 400 pages, and it's got that big table, and it's just like yeah, it's yeah, it's the it's the prior year appropriation and then the balance.

Yeah, yeah.

So a lot of those are like older awards and whatnot.

Like you said, we have to go back and reconcile and look at the funding there.

But so much of the fire station maintenance now is under the generalized capital maintenance program.

They kind of consolidated everything.

So that's the that's city hall is parks and rec.

That's um again the fire stations and police stations, like you mentioned.

So there's money out there.

I can't remember projects off the top of my head right now, but there is funding out there.

And that also includes like roof replacements and stuff like that too.

So uh so maybe we could as a follow-up get that number of uh the total investment both in renovations and in um deferred maintenance.

Yeah, general management.

Yeah.

Um let me see if uh did want to ask a question.

Oh, um, the Richmond Fiber Optic Network.

Um that seems like a uh substantial investment.

I I guess some questions that are are still needing to be answered are um do we have the necessary resources to develop and maintain our own fiber optic network?

Um who are the customers for this?

Like what is our ROI?

So there are a few.

I mean, I think that's one that we want to get you a robust answer for, so we'd answer that one in writing.

But I in short, we don't do that alone.

I mean, when we are looking at installing fiber optics, there are others who we have to make sure we acquire right away, and there's a bunch of other activities that go with it.

So we'll just get you a robust answer on that because the the short answer is yes, but I want you to see the detail behind it.

I guess um, for a high level for the for the public, could you explain why we're why we're investing in our own fiber optic network, the big 30,000 foot why?

Yeah, I mean, I think for more reliability on dependency and to be able to keep up with uh modern technology requirements is the big picture why.

But uh I don't know if y'all want to come up and speak to some of those things, you can.

But I I think it's likely be easier for everybody to get a full detail review because it the reason we're making that decision is one to make sure we kind of keep up with the times and invest with technology and fiber optics, but those costs do require in many instances uh right-of-way acquisition easements and other activities that go into just you know, you're not just digging up dirt and uh installing things into the ground.

Thank you.

Yep, no problem.

That's it.

Thank you, Mr.

Donald.

Um want to thank you, uh Mr.

Vincent, Mr.

Morris.

Oh, and Mr.

Nixon Garrison for uh the presentation.

I do have a question, but I'm just coming to well, several questions, but gonna give them to RJ to include in the list.

So I want to say thank you.

And then last but not least, uh, would like if you can provide the information uh that council member trammell um requested earlier uh in the meeting.

I think I mentioned to the council member that we will have, I just went ahead and sent somebody to find out what's going on now.

But I do know our monthly check-ins at Hickory Hill will be able to bring some of those uh uh documents to folks because I think you want people to be able to fill those out uh in person, and then I think we're checking out or trying to create a process where people can come into City Hall as well and do the same.

But for people who I'm assuming you're saying are being kicked off of the roles, which um not sure what the answer to that is, but you know, that's the work that this transformation manager will be doing, and so we've already uh thanks to the mayor's leadership, assigned that to her today.

So we'll have a follow-up on that as well on why that's happening is if it's systematic, is it something that they need to do that they may not be aware of that's triggered by something, and so we'll make sure to follow up on that.

Mr.

Donald, just want to be clear because Ms.

Trammell and some of the others of us have had um residents calling us.

And so for those individuals, she's gotten information that who's the touch point that that information is going to.

Yeah, so that's gonna come to our finance department, it'll go to tax or whatnot.

So if you've got a particular person.

Well, if you've got a list and you get it to Mr.

Warren, he normally sends it to myself, uh chief of staff and the DCAO of finance.

So if you allow him to continue to compile it, we'll keep that process going.

Okay.

That way at the highest level we see it and we make sure to push it down and follow up.

And someone will follow up with the end with the residents, but and follow up to the council member as well.

Correct.

Usually what happens is Mr.

Warren sends us pretty detailed.

Hey, this is depending on the issue.

This is District 5, this is District 7, this is District 89.

Here are the names, here are the issues, and then we would respond back.

Now he just disperses it to y'all in his way, which that's you know, it's council business.

I don't get into that, but we'll make sure he he'll make sure we he get we get what we need and we'll make sure he gets what you need.

Thank you.

And we'll do that um as soon as possible, probably.

Yes, ma'am, yeah.

Yeah, tomorrow.

Councilwoman Robertson, did you what did you say?

I'm sorry.

I I thought I reserved um a couple of minutes and guys I had additional qu one additional question I want to ask.

Okay, so a additional question, but if because there you had not completed your time.

But if there are other persons with questions, please get those to RJ so we can get them to Mr.

Donald and the administration.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Um thank you, Mr.

Donna.

Thank you, Ms.

Dr.

Newbill.

Um question.

Uh I know that we are looking at a significant increase in uh capital improvement efforts this year, and that goes on from one year to the next.

Um there's some conversation at the General Assembly about uh putting a freeze on the gasoline tax that contributes a lot to the CDTA.

And so I'm interested in knowing from you, and you know that the council has been trying to reduce the real estate tax for some time.

What kind of impact and what's what's the possibilities based on now that we are in that the budget cycle that we can kind of address that from a holistic perspective?

Yeah, so listen, I I think what I'm I don't want to make any breaking news or anything like that, but I I will tell you I'm a believer and I've I know that the mayor is as well, is that he has heard the council loud and clear that I think you want it to do uh what was it, a 116 reduction or something of that nature previous, and one of the things that was asked is that we look at what the feasibility is.

I think you know, prices are going up for everybody, and we have to have resources to be able to deliver.

I think I've heard from the council just in this meeting, but in previous meetings, we we need more.

Have we allocated more?

We need more, we need more.

That takes resources.

But at the same time, we have to make sure that our community is affordable for the people who are already here, not just affordable for the people coming from all of these high-end places who can afford to live here.

And so, and looking at the budget that the mayor has put forth.

Ultimately, that you know, I think the mayor is committed to some type of reduction, and he is the boss.

He makes the final say, but I know that he has been very interested in that, and I think that is our goal in moving forward.

And so the hope is is that we can collaboratively deliver a budget that meets the needs of Richmonders, but also tightens our belt enough so that in future years, which is you know, next year when we get that larger assessment and praying that the economy doesn't get wrecked by federal actions and everything else, we're able to provide some sort of reduction for our taxpayers.

That way, an increase here along with a reduction there, and you do that across the board, you can still deliver best in class services while also giving some relief to taxpayers.

So that's our hope.

Of course, we've got to deal with the today first so that we're in position for tomorrow.

Thank you, Mr.

Donald.

Again, thank you for the presentation and all of your um heads of the various components.

With that, members, thank you.

Please get your questions to RJ so we can get them to the administration for response back as quick as possible.

With that, this work session of the Richmond City Council now stands adjourned.

Thank you.