Can you read the chamber emergency evacuation announcement?

Upon accordation of the emergency alarm signal, all person should immediately exit the building.

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

Able person should assist visually and hearing impaired visitors with exiting the building.

Individuals wishing to speak during public hearings in the public comment period are generally allowed three minutes to speak.

Persons appearing before the committee are not allowed to campaign for public office, promote private business ventures, use language of a personal nature, which insults or demeans any person, including comments directed at public officials or staff members that are not related to their official duties or address a staff, address or question staff members directly.

All questions are to be directed to the committee chair.

Failure to adhere to the guidelines may resort in speakers forfeiting any remaining time and further disciplinary action as necessary, which could include barring from attendance at future meetings of the committee for a period of six months.

And Madam Vice Chair, all members of the committee are in attendance today, with the exception of Ms.

Lynch, and you do have a quorum.

Is she online yet?

Let me check.

No, I don't see her.

We can't keep going until she get on.

Okay.

So Madam Clerk, can we move with public comment?

Public comment is now open.

Is there anyone present who wishes to address the committee regarding items not on today's agenda?

Okay.

Come forward, state your name for the record, please.

Good evening, everyone, Dr.

Jaclyn Johnson Wilson.

I would like to address regarding RPS budget.

Is that something that I would comment on now?

Or at the some other point?

No.

No.

Okay.

Please say your name for the record.

My name is Dr.

Cindy Robinson.

Good afternoon, Richmond City Council.

I am Dr.

Cindy Robinson, principal of Richmond Virtual Academy.

I am here to speak in full support of the school board's budget request.

A city's budget is a statement of its values.

I acknowledge the proposed 257 million local allocation is a massive investment.

But a record investment is only a success if it achieves the goal.

Today that goal is strategic excellence, ensuring every Richmond family chooses us and every effective educator stays with us.

The landscape of education in our region shifted this week.

While our neighbors in Henrico are retreating and limiting their virtual options, Richmond has the opportunity to lead.

By maintaining our comprehensive K-12 program, RBA becomes the premier destination in Central Virginia, perfectly positioned to become a VDOE approved multi-district online provider.

Why would we shrink our vision just as our neighbors are narrowing theirs?

We must dispel the myth that RBA is a cost center.

In reality, we are a model of fiscal efficiency.

As this council reviews a facilities report highlighting nearly 40 million in urgent deferred maintenance for our physical buildings, RBA stands as a really evalve.

We educate our scholars at nearly half the cost of brick and mortar schools because we operate without that massive facility overhead.

RVA is actually our primaries, our district primaries tool to reclaim the thousands of families lost to the private school market, homeschooling, or simply no shows.

Every family we recruit back brings state revenue directly into Richmond's coffers.

We are an align item to be cut.

We are a revenue positive asset.

So let's be honest about the stakes.58 mandates that this council carries the weight of our innovation.

Failing to close the final $3.8 million gap is like building a world-class home and stopping before you put on the roof.

Now I'm to the council members.

If you are proposing courageously proposing amendments to fully fund our schools, thank you.

You are choosing to protect our veterans' talent rather than exporting it to the neighbors.

You are choosing our kids and their families.

And I encourage the rest of our council to take a stand with us as well.

You have 30 seconds.

Listen, the community has spoken.

No gaps, no compromises.

Show this region that Richmond doesn't just keep up.

We set the pace.

Fully fund RVA, fully fund RPS.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Robinson.

Good afternoon again.

Uh Dr.

Jacqueline Johnson Wilson.

I'm a proud parent at Richmond Virtual Academy.

I am here to encourage fully funding the needs of RPS.

My son, who has complex health, sensory and behavioral challenges, is a student in RVA's intensive support class and has attended since its inception.

The administration of RBA has created an amazing learning environment where parents are involved and the needs of vulnerable and disabled students are being met in their least restrictive environments.

RBA has been instrumental in facilitating a virtual least restrictive environment with wonderfully skilled specialists and therapists.

IEP goals are being met with meaningful and measurable progress.

RBA has been identified by the VDOE as one of the divine nine schools leading the way in K 12 virtual learning as represented in this chart from VDOE.

The demand for virtual learning has increased year over year.

RPS should embrace this accolade and lead with RVA into the post digital future.

In addition, RBA has a 100% graduation rate and low instances of truancy.

The per pupil cost at RBA is half that of in-person learning.

Supporting and growing RBA also offers advantages to in-person teachers and students.

Why not build on this?

This is an opportunity to take advantage of built-in savings to the division and multiple advantages for students, families, and ultimately the city of Richmond.

An independent audit should be conducted to confirm that funds are correctly assigned, expended in accordance with budgetary intent, and leveraged to achieve the greatest impact.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Johnson.

Good afternoon.

My name is Mrs.

Lofton Pickens.

I'm the instructional compliance coordinator with the Richmond Virtual Academy.

I didn't expect I didn't prepare a speech.

RBA is less than one percent of the entire RPS budget.

RBA is not a detriment to RPS as a whole.

It is actually an asset if we work together.

I wish that people would just unify and work together on this to make sure that all scholars are educated equally.

Yeah, an independent audit would be awesome for RPS to have.

Please consider to make sure that RP RVA is counted in y'all's budget amendments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Loft and Beacons.

Hello, my name is Dr.

Candace Spinn, and I am the school counselor at RVA.

And again, I still I didn't prepare anything.

Um, but speaking from the heart, uh I work every day with these students and having our school in place as a virtual option for those who have anxiety about in-person, who find themselves to state, I'm a non-traditional learner.

This is not a COVID answer.

This is not a budget item for COVID or out of COVID and let it go.

This is a wake-up call from COVID.

If we take a moment to even reflect on what's going on right now, just a moment.

We feel intense fear.

There's a lot going on.

I don't have to list everything.

So our students feel this every day.

They found a place where there's safety.

There's a place where they're face to face virtually with their teachers.

It's not just something where it's async.

Virtual Virginia is their safe place.

And we all want to feel safe.

It's a wake-up call from what's going on now.

And I just want to say, please fund RPS, and it means funding RBA.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Ben.

Madam Kirk, do we have anyone else for public comment, either in person or online?

Madam Vice Chair.

Um see no one else in one just one more.

Okay.

State your name for the record, please.

Okay, my name is Sandra Porti.

And I currently serve as the virtual learning coordinator at the Richmond Virtual Academy.

In this role, I also serve as the homebound coordinator for Richmond Public Schools.

I'm here tonight to urge you to approve the full proposed RPS budget because doing so ensures that the Richmond Virtual Academy can continue serving the students who depend on it.

We are a fully accredited K through 12 school with certified teachers, structured instruction, and a strong connected learning community.

For many families, it provides a safe, stable, and high quality educational environment that traditional settings cannot always meet.

But I also want to make one point absolutely clear.

Homebound instruction cannot replace the Richmond Virtual Academy.

Homebound services are temporary by design.

The goal is always to return the student back to their school setting as soon as possible.

Homebound instruction is also limited, often just a few hours a week, and it occurs in isolation.

It cannot offer the academic rigor engagement or full curriculum that students receive at the Richmond Virtual Academy.

For families who rely on the Richmond Virtual Academy model, it is not a convenience.

Please fully fund RPS.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

I'm sorry that I hear your last name, but thank you for being here.

Poor T P O R T E.

Thank you, Ms.

Poity.

Madam Vice Chair, seeing no one else, the public comment period is now closed.

Thank you, ma'am.

I'll read in the motion for Ms.

Lynch.

Pursuant to Rule 3D 4B of Council Rules of Procedure, Committee Chair Stephanie Lynch has requested to participate in this meeting via Microsoft Teams due to a family obligation requiring travel along the I95 corridor.

The committee members present must adopt a motion to approve Lynch's participation in this meeting by electric communication means if it appears to the body that her request complies with Rule 3D of Council Rules of Procedure.

At this time, pursuant to Rule 3D 4D of Council's rules, is there a motion for members physically assembled approving Ms.

Lynch participation in this meeting by electronic communication means?

So moved.

Second.

The committee is voting on the motion to approve Ms.

Lynch's participation in this meeting by electronic participation means.

Mr.

Bredson.

Aye.

Vice Chair Jones.

Aye.

That motion has been approved.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We'll move to approval of the minutes.

The minutes to be approved offer March 12, 2026 for the Education and Human Services Standing Committee meeting held at 2 p.m.

If there are no amendments or corrections, then the many minutes will stand approved as presented.

Those minutes have been approved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can we move on with boards and commissions?

Good afternoon.

Pamela Nichols, Council Management Analyst.

The vacancy report before you this being considered consists of current and projected vacancies through August of this year.

And so we're going to dive right in, starting with the aging and disabilities advisory board.

There's one vacancy for a resident who is is the current or past caregiver of a person with a disability, and we have an application from Brianne Frankart.

And then moving down to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, which this has been continued several times.

You're saying one of the eligibility requirements are to be a member of the case.

And you haven't confirmed that.

No, she has not confirmed that.

I guess we'll continue it again until you can confirm it.

Okay.

Well, what is that?

That's fine with me.

Okay.

All right.

Wonderful.

And then moving on to the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority.

There are three vacancies for individual residing or having a principal place of employment in the city.

We have a reappointment application from Anika Richburg.

And then an initial application from Christina Austin, Rosario Miller and Katie Smithwick.

And we did receive support for the reappointment of Miss Richburg.

And also for appointment consideration from Miss Rosar uh for Rosario Miller and Katie Smithwick.

That's fine.

Okay, wonderful.

And then for the Rich Richmond Public Library, one vacancy.

We have a reappointment application for Brent Braves, and then application from Hannah Jones.

We did not receive any opposition for the reappointment.

So it's our belief that the reappointment is supported.

And then moving down to the Social Services Advisory Board, there's one vacancy, and we receive a number of applications.

Um being from Elise Black, Trina Davis, Lacey Hanscher, which it notes that she is currently a member of our participatory budgeting as well as City Personnel Board, and then Sharon Walton Darby.

We received a response that the board supports the appointment of any of these individuals.

But I would like to note that currently the membership consists of one member from the second district, two from the fourth district, three from the fifth, one from the sixth, and one from the seventh.

So I recommend that we continue this one to try to get more applications.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

And we're going to continue to the next quarter, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

All righty.

So just to know, so we're continuing Lewis Gantter also to the next quarter.

Correct.

That's your people.

Okay.

All righty.

Um, and so would you all um support the reappointments for RBHA as far as the laborary ritual library?

Okay.

I thought she said there was already three people.

How many, how many um the seventh is one?

No, how many members did you say were on the social services board from what which districts did you say?

One from the second, two from the fourth, three from the fifth.

Why don't we not do another fifth?

One from the sixth, and one from the seventh.

Sharon and south.

And again, we receive support for all um four of the applicants.

So we already have someone from the seventh, correct?

Oh, you want well, we do.

Okay, we'll we'll go with what's her name.

Uh Sharon Darby from the seventh.

I recommend that.

Wonderful.

Okay.

All right.

Well, then I moved that we yeah, recommend those appointments as we stated if you second us.

Madam Vice Chair, just for clarity, which boards are being continued into next quarter.

The um Lewis Gantter.

That was it right.

Okay, yeah, only that.

Just the Louis Ginner.

We went with the social services one, so we're good on that.

Okay, sorry about that.

The committee is voting on the motion for the board's appointments and reappointments recommendations to council for approval as stated, and to continue consideration of applications for the Lewis get Lewis Ginner to the committees to the May 142026 meeting.

Mr.

Braxton, aye, Vice Chair Jones, Chair Lynch.

Aye.

Thank you.

That motion has been approved.

All right, thank you.

Moving on to uh I'm sorry, just for clarification, it will be moved to the next quarterly review, which is not the next month's meeting, June 11th.

Um I will have to check that, but I just say the next quarter review.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you, Miss Nichols.

All right, madam chair.

We have two presentations.

First up is the human rights commission.

All right.

Good afternoon, Chair Jones.

Um Vice Chair Jones, I apologize.

Uh, Chair Lynch and Council Member Breton.

My name is Samantha Galena, and I'm the commission chairwoman.

I can reminder calm down.

Balm down.

Ms.

Lynch, we hear you.

Can you go on mute?

Oh, oh, I'm sorry, I'm clearly in the cards again.

So we appreciate your excitement, Chair Chair Lynch.

Um, my name is Samantha Gleen, I'm the Commission Chairwoman, and I'm here today with the Commission Vice Chair, Miss Emily Wolfteich.

And is it this one?

Oh, thank you.

Thank you so much.

And we're here to give you a presentation today on the Human Rights Commission and all that we've been up to.

So I'll let uh Ms.

Wolfteig start off.

Good afternoon, everyone.

As Sam said, my name is Emily Wolfteich.

I'm the vice chair of the Human Rights Commission.

The Human Rights Commission has a deceptively simple mission to safeguard the rights of all of Richmond's citizens.

We seek to protect individuals from unlawful discrimination under 13 protected categories race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, national origin, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, transgender status, or gender identity.

In 2016, the Richmond City Council adopted an ordinance to examine the need for a human rights council within the city of Richmond.

This looked for the scope of the Human Rights Commission and provided the council with recommendations concerning the necessity for such a commission.

They found that indeed we needed one, and therefore in 2018, the Richmond City Council adopted the ordinance establishing the Human Rights Commission.

The commission is comprised of three committees.

First, we have the community engagement committee, as it might suggest.

We engage with the community.

Over the last year, we've expanded that engagement, including expanding our social media presence, which includes elevating community partners and participation in community events such as an extremely rainy Juneteenth from last year and RVA Pride Fest.

This year we're looking to expand even further by expanding more of our online presence, implementing best practices for community engagement that we've learned from other human rights commissions, and expanding community knowledge of the fact that we exist.

We also have a research and policy development committee.

Over the last few years, we've talked to established rights human rights commissions in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York so that we can gather more information about strengthening our research approach.

We began developing internal protocols.

We launched a partner organization survey.

We've compiled a partner directed directory, excuse me, expanded our membership from one to four members, and we'll soon be launching a community engagement survey.

In February of this year, we hosted a Love for Our Community event, which brought together nonprofits partners from across the city and a number of different sectors to share what needs they have, contribute to the community survey, and provide on-the-ground perspectives that inform our work.

Right.

Our final committee is the intake and investigation committee.

In 2025, this committee started drafting an enforcement ordinance, which would allow the human rights commission to enforce anti-discrimination laws as provided by the Virginia Code.

As part of our due diligence in investigating how we would lay out this enforcement ordinance, we met with the HRC staff and directors, as well as city attorneys from the City of Charlottesville, Alexandria, and Fairfax, as well as the current Deputy Attorney General for the public advocacy division over at the Attorney General's office.

We've reviewed the Virginia Code and enforcement ordinances from other jurisdictions in order to craft our human rights ordinance.

And we've worked to refine the proposed ordinance intake and investigation process, and we propose that to our commission internally.

As far as inquiries that we've had thus far, um, we've had many, many inquiries that come through our door and are directed over to our staff person, Miss Brittany Rose.

70% of the inquiries that we have received have fallen fallen within the city's jurisdiction.

Um 30% involve employment, as well as 30% involve law enforcement, 35% include disability discrimination, and 24% include sex discrimination and race discrimination.

And these numbers are pretty consistent with what folks are seeing on the national level as well.

And we believe that all these statistics are signals that there is, in fact, a local need for an enforcement ordinance.

So there are currently eight with the majority of the enforcement capable ordinances being in Northern Virginia, Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, and Prince William.

Uh but Charlottesville recently received its own enforcement ordinance or worked through it.

And our goal is to be able to join those other human rights commissions and having our own enforcement ordinance consistent with the Virginia Code.

And we believe that this will help all of the Richmond residents who suffer discrimination and give them a venue to offer them meaningful assistance in remedying that discrimination.

To give you a bit of an update on where we are as far as enforcement ordinance development, we have been developing and enforced the enforcement ordinance consistent with the code.

We have met with the mayor's office, and we are in the process of meeting with the city attorney.

We believe that the work is in support of the mayor's vision of thriving and inclusive communities where everybody's rights are protected.

This includes protecting the rights of immigrants, LGBTQ populations that are particularly targeted, women's reproductive rights and addressing long-standing racial inequities and health and well-being.

And we'd love to take any questions that you may have.

So without any enforcement currently, what happens to these inquiries that we currently get?

Yeah, that's a great question.

So currently what we are doing, well, our staff member, Ms.

Brittany Rose, is referring those complaints to the appropriate state and federal agencies.

So depending on the type of complaint, if it falls into employment, that would go over to the EEOC.

If it's housing, that would go to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

And then all of these complaints would also go to the Office of the Attorney General, which is the state office that receives these complaints.

As well, we we feel it's helpful to provide folks in the city that live and reside around the city with other avenues that they could access, be that um sometimes health needs.

So we'll we'll say that they should go to VCU, perhaps they're having mental health problems, things like that.

So other resources as well as legal aid in the area.

And I know the percentage increase are here.

Is there like a number that would represent us an amount that would justify a level of staffing that uh enforcement might require?

Like do you have a target for number of inquiries?

Are you hoping to get more by doing more outreach?

What what how many inquiries do we get and how many is a normal amount?

Um I'm not sure if I'm able to say what is a normal amount.

Um I believe that through more community events, we are going to receive more inquiries.

Uh the way that we have our proposed ordinance set up, it is such that we would be able to accept and inquirate if we have the staffing capability or not.

So we are looking to expand from a full-time to a uh I'm sorry, from a part-time to a full-time staffing capability so that we would be able to address the needs.

Um other commissions across the state have more, uh, especially the enforcement commissions have more full-time staff, but we would be looking to kind of ramp up uh towards more full-time staff as as capabilities and funding is able.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Oh.

Share your hands.

Yeah, go ahead.

Okay.

Yeah, I can.

Um just a quick this might be a dumb question.

Um, but does the Virginia Code cover for the enforcement?

Does it cover non-citizens?

Yes.

So we have to be like it does.

So uh so the Virginia Code covers all individuals that are residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia and all those that are protected under the Virginia Human Rights Act in uh code section 2.2-3,900.

And then the specific section that we look to is 15.2-965 and 853.

That gives us our power.

So it would include non-citizens, anybody that would be considered a resident of this locality, so a resident of the city of Richmond, um, which I don't believe that there's some burden of proof for.

Okay.

So technically, so that could be our undocumented population or any other um population that's currently being targeted by ICE right now.

Absolutely.

And I think that there has been obviously an increased presence of ICE in communities across Virginia, and that these human rights commissions are very powerful in their ability to deter discrimination against folks that that have been particularly targeted.

Yeah, that was all our other my second question was do you have any examples of ways that the human rights commission can play a role in helping to kind of safeguard against some of the IC activity.

I know that's really tricky, but any any recent examples that you can think of doing also.

Um absolutely.

I mean, in my own experience as an attorney, I've seen several instances in which individuals have been terminated from their employment because of ICE activity.

Perhaps they weren't taken away, but that it interrupted their employment and then they were they were terminated as a result, or instances in their housing as well that has been impacted, and perhaps landlords not wanting to rent to individuals because of uh potentially undocumented status.

And those are instances, in fact, of discrimination under the Virginia Human Rights Act that have been remedied in other localities.

I believe Charlottesville in particular, I'm thinking of one case where they've been able to successfully keep somebody housed.

Thank you so much.

That's real encouraging to hear it.

Hopefully we get that ordinance out soon.

Thank you, Chair Oven.

Thank you so much.

Um, a quick question, and mine's is more internal, so maybe this might be an administration question.

I'm just wondering how does this commission overlap with like I see an easy and the audience?

How does this overlap with that department and the work that she's doing?

I'm big on making sure we're not duplicating efforts, and then since you are moving towards enforcement, but um how does that actually affect us as the city?

Well, I'm happy to answer that.

So um Anisa, as our equity and inclusion advisor comes, attends all of our meetings, assists throughout our process.

I think she offers a very unique and important lens to the work that we do.

Um, and she certainly assists Miss Brittany Rose, our uh part-time staff person.

Without Anisa Smith, we wouldn't be able to do the work that we do.

She's been particularly helpful, I think, in addressing how we are going to get into the community and how we are gonna outreach to all these folks so that they're actually able to know who we are and what we do.

So we've been she's been tremendously helpful to this commission's work.

Thank you, because that was about to be my next question because I think as an outside commission, you gotta build community trust.

And in not having that, I was wondering how we partner in on our side to make sure that it's not I mean, I'm glad to see the commission back as well.

I mean, I know we've had talks about it, and there's been a lot of concern about what's going on with the human rights commission.

So happy to see it back in action, but um, even more happy to know that you are taking your time and being intentional about it because there are a lot of challenges amongst our community communities, and you know, oddly enough, we just left a meeting with Congresswoman McClellan on this very topic.

And so wanting to be sensitive and really, you know, making sure that we are um approaching the communities with care.

So thank you so much for that.

And um I appreciate all the work that you were doing.

Thank you, Chairwoman.

Just wanted to add something on that point.

Part of the surveys that we're doing now are not only to gather data about how people are experiencing human rights within the city of Richmond, uh, and then being able to provide that data back to them so that they're able to use that in their own research, but also as a way to show that we are invested in the communities, that we do care what they think, um, and as a way for them to be able to know that we are a resource to reach out to if they have anything they'd like to say.

Thank you.

And one last question.

You said uh I thought I'd ready.

You said you move from four to um how many commission members?

As of our last meeting, we are fully staffed, so all 12 members.

Oh, 12 members.

Oh, okay.

And we can find that.

Where can we find that at the C who's on?

We can get that from you again.

Thank you.

All right, we can get it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right, we have up next the Richmond and Henryco Health District uh presentation.

Hello, while our slides are going up.

Oh, there we go.

Um, good afternoon, uh Vice Chair Jones.

Um Chair Lynch virtually, and uh uh Councilmember Bretton.

Very nice to um get a chance to speak with you this afternoon.

My name is Elaine Perry.

I'm the director of the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, and I have with me here today our Chief Operations Officer Deanna Crottner.

So, what we're gonna do is just give you a very brief overview of the amazing public worth work that we do at RHHD.

So, back in about 2018, the Richmond City Health District and the Henrico County Health District joined together under shared leadership.

So we are still separate entities with separate budgets, but our leadership is shared, which I'll show more in a minute.

Um, and a lot of our work is shared because as you can imagine in public health, um issues don't stop at a border.

Um, and so a lot of the things that we deal with communical diseases, social determinants of health are shared among um you know, among many localities, but it really does make sense for us to address them together in this area.

Um you can see our mission, vision, and values up there.

As always, what we're trying to do is protect health, champion equity, and partner to address local needs.

We know that we absolutely cannot do this independently as a local health district.

And so in collaboration with our localities, our governments, and with community partners, we are attempting to move forward the public health in in our area.

And so right now we have a one main location.

Our headquarters are on 400 East Carrie Street.

We have a physical presence in the res we have six resource centers in the public housing developments listed up there.

I know how to get it back.

Thank you.

But we have had to relocate that because of some facilities issues.

And so we are currently operating on the South Side, outside of our Southside WIC location.

And I apologize, I can't seem to get back.

Thank you.

So we have two women, infants and children's locations, WIC locations, Southside Plaza.

So our Southside community health workers are working out of that location, as well as other places.

And then we moved our WIC location from our headquarters to the community hospital again to be closer to the community that they serve.

We have about a hundred um, we have 115 physicians, um, 15 of which are vacant.

Um those vacancies are spread across our low our um different departments.

We have more of a focus right now in vacancies, unfortunately, in environmental health, um, and in our nursing staff, but they do span many of the departments, and we are very actively working to recruit those, but um it is difficult to get um nurses regardless of where you are.

So that that's one of the areas of focus we have.

Um and then we do still have um one wage and five contract staff members.

So this is our leadership team.

Um, and and again, these are people who are working by and large across both Richmond and Henrico.

Um and you can see the areas covered there in terms of environmental health, population health, community programs, nursing, um, and then our business office.

And so again, these are people who work to to cover and support public health in in both um jurisdictions.

So when we talk about what we're doing in public health, um the model that we are using that you know, hopefully is is most helpful and easy to explain, is looking at um some foundational public health services.

So this is a model that's put up by the public health accreditation board or FAB, and Virginia is moving to more fully embrace this, and at the Virginia Department of Health level, we're developing a core services model, which is based on these, right?

So there's five basic public area public health services that no matter where you live, um you should have access to these services.

Some of them are provided by us, some of them are provided by our colleagues in our uh central office here in Richmond.

Um, but you can see they fall under communical disease control, chronic disease and injury prevention, environmental health, maternal child and family health, and that we would call access to and linkage with the clinical care.

So public health in Virginia, by and large, we are not um clinical providers.

We're definitely not primary care providers.

So the clinical services that we provide are limited to certain communical diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis.

We do some family planning, but but by and large, our role is not to be the direct providers of clinical care, but to help connect people who need it to appropriate sources of care.

And so that's for that that terminology there.

And then underneath that and supporting all of that work are some foundational capabilities.

Um and so again, this is something that some of these things we need help with from our from our central office and from our community, um, but some are things that we provide directly.

And so an example of this emergency preparedness response.

We have a staff member that that is their work to do.

We have dedicated communications team, whereas some of the work that we do more in terms of uh policy development support, for example, a lot of that work we are we are relying on our our central office to do.

So that's again just a very, very quick overview of a way that we look at the work that we're doing in in the city of Richmond.

So these are just a few metrics that we had provided for um the budget documentation and uh WIC average monthly participation.

I do want to highlight WIC because it is such an important service.

Um, and we were very fortunate to be able to this is so WIC is 100% federal funding, right?

So this is something it's a federal program in Virginia.

The WIC services are provided through local health departments.

We are so fortunate that this would remain um these services remained completely uninterrupted during the federal shutdown.

Um and and which we were very grateful for and and you know, we're concerned, but that was something that continued unabated during that time period.

And so, you know, again, we have a very robust WIC program in the city of Richmond and work hard to maintain it as such.

Um environmental health food inspections, this is another area where we are really supporting um the thriving restaurant community in the city of Richmond, you know, helping ensure that when we all eat out at amazing restaurants here that the food we're getting, cold food is cold, hot food is hot, and everything is is served in a way to try and keep our communical disease folks a little less busy.

So, and then the last metric to share is just you know, we do have a family planning, a sexually transmitted infection clinics, um, and which you know, again, we do tend to serve more as um safety net providers in that space, but it is really important that we make sure that people have access you know across the city to be able to receive these important services.

Okay.

So in public health, as with all things, we really try to make sure that we are we are uh not only following the data, but but that we're getting the data from the people that we are serving most.

And so a widely accepted public health practice is to do a community health assessment, followed up by acutemy community health improvement plans.

So we call them CHAS and CHIPS.

And back in 2024, uh we did the first joint community health to the first joint CHA for Richmond at Hed and RICO.

Um and we did break the, we can look at things, you know, by the two different different localities, but we did have um robust participation from both of those localities.

And what the reason we do this is so public health shouldn't be about what I think we should be doing or what Deanna or whatever thinks we should do, be doing.

Some of the things we have to do, right, that were mandated by code, but either state code or local ordinance to do, but really we want to make sure that where we can, we're doing provide the services that our community wide wants, right?

And we're we're addressing the needs that are important to them.

And so again, small side, not gonna read all the way through it.

Um, our full CHA and um, well, the draft is ships are still in draft, but is available on our website and could also be provided as needed.

And so the important takeaway from all this is that when we talk to our communities, the the communities spoke, right, and came back to us and said the three most important concerns that they have in this space are mental health, and in that we are including substance use disorder, community safety and violence prevention, and chronic diseases.

Um, and so again, I think that those are surprise to none of us that because these are things that are really important.

And we look at um not just morbidity, but mortality, chronic disease, um, substance use disorder, and then community safety and violence prevention are three areas that uh you know really make sense for us to focus on.

And so the next step after you do a CHA, you need to do a chip.

You don't ask people what they is important to them without them following up.

And so our community health improvement plan is still under development, it's in close to draft or close to final draft.

And each of those three areas I mentioned chronic disease, mental health, community safety have had work groups, they have objectives and goals, um, and each of those goals then have um action plans that go along with them.

And so, again, in the interest of my rapidly dwindling time, I won't read through all of these, but you know, again, not just saying, okay, chronic disease, that's huge.

So, what are we specifically going to do?

And in chronic disease, a lot of attention is going to be focused on blood pressure monitoring efforts, and nutrition access.

So, heart disease, helping prevent the complications of heart disease, and then expanding access to uh nutritious food service.

Again, you can see mental health.

We do have a focus on youth, but not just youth.

Um, and then um with uh community safety looking both at domestic violence and a personal violence and then reducing alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths and hospitalizations.

All right, so at that point, I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Deanna to talk about the budget.

Great, good afternoon.

Happy to be here to talk through these next three slides to finish this up.

Um, right here you can see our fiscal year uh 26 budget, those top two lines is are the funds that the city contributes uh to the work that we do in the community.

That first line is um by our local government agreement, the city is required to match 34% what the general fund gives us, and that's what that first amount is.

That second uh line there is the 100% local funds.

That's what we call like the above and beyond the the what you give us past that that match level to support the community efforts that we do.

Um the bottom part of this graph is the rest of the funds we bring in.

So we've got the state general fund and that amount.

Um the second line is actual federal and other grants we receive.

The majority of that money is our women, infants and children program, um, but we do have some other grants that come in.

And that last line is our estimated revenue, and those revenues come in from a combination of our clinical fees, our environmental health fees, as well as our birth and death certificates that we collect.

Um it's important to note that out of that grand total on an annual basis, probably 85% of those dollars get budgeted towards our sal our staffing.

And then this um line breaks down that 100% above and beyond funds there.

So you can see that while the majority of this funding goes to our resource centers that are out in the communities, there are a number of other programs that these funds support to help us deliver services in the community.

Um, adolescent health programs, uh, communicable disease and radiology services, and a lot of that is our tuberculosis programming, um, violence prevention, lead and rabies, housing advocacy, and tobacco cessation.

And then this last slide here actually takes our funding and um breaks it down across those foundation foundational, that foundational model that Dr.

Perry talked about.

So you know, 41% of that covers that bottom layer of that model, and the rest of the funding kind of is broken down um across all of those services across the top of that model.

Uh, you can see that like a flag here that access to linkage and clinical care, while it looks really small, it's not really there, it's a hard to tease out the combination efforts here, right?

So communicable disease, chronic disease, and maternal child out all provide some access and linkage to that care.

Um, but as a primary flag, um, that's why that appears to be so low.

Um we this is a relatively new model, and as we continue to work in this model, we'll do better at kind of teasing out those different parts.

But um, yeah, that's all I have for you regarding budget, but happy to take any questions.

Um I saw those three chips, and I was wondering um what kinds of metrics or goals they will be measured against.

So the um specific metrics and goals for our chip are still in draft form.

I mean, I can speak to again, they they they are definitely much more granular than you know, blood pressure and and whatever.

So some examples um specifically working with there's um part of the the chronic disease one is gonna be working with feedmore in order to provide um heart uh healthy education to staff at feedmore.

And so some of what we'll look at there is in terms of you know, did it happen, how often did it happen, you know, what additional um uh events are they able to do?

Um blood pressure monitoring is again some of it is is training, training the trainer, and then how to expand, you know, how often you're able to expand blood pressure monitoring throughout the community.

And what's the timeline for like all those plans?

That's the thing that's this year or multi-years long.

Oh, it's multi-year, it's multi-year.

Um, so in general, we talk about a three-year time plan for for the chips.

Um sometimes it's a little bit more, a little bit less, but yeah, our the the goals are written in a way that they would be accomplished over this you know three-year time period here 25, 26, and 27.

So 25 is a lot of the planning, 26 and 727 is implementation.

I do think though that there's some things that'll be into 28 and 100%.

Oh, I see.

But the what the planning is happening now.

So if I was gonna say I would love to see what the metrics are, those would be ready this year.

But the actual outcomes are coming with that.

Yeah, the full the draft, like I said, it's in draft, it's getting closer and closer.

But yes, and that will be available.

We can definitely make sure we make it available, and it will also be um we post those on our website so they're you know publicly available so people can see what we're trying to accomplish.

Thank you.

And my last one is I see all these um different types of local funds, surveillance prevention and housing advocacy and Allison Health.

Um, which of these are kind would you say are generating kind of the best like great returns?

Like, oh yeah, the funding into this is is really outperforming.

Doing great.

Sorry, I was trying to get back to that so we could so obviously we think all of our programs are very important.

Um I do want I will I will highlight the resource centers.

Um that's a very interesting um, you know, just as an example of a program that truly is blended funding.

So we have the city has been very generous in continuing to fund our resource centers.

Um, and and so there's 100% city funding we get from there.

We do have some state funding in terms of we have we provide support from that from our co-op, and we are still getting some local philanthropy support for those.

And so that's a situation where the city is investing X amount of dollars, but there were definitely additional dollars that are coming towards that.

And and you know, these are community health workers in each of these resource centers, so they're connecting, providing connections in the community.

Um, and and you know, again, uh I don't I'll be honest to you, I don't have capacity to do ROI and any of this, and I know that's not what you're asking for, but in general, you know, we we do point to that as an example.

Um, you know, again, you look at communal disease services, you invest in a certain amount of money that then is preventing disease from spreading further, right?

So if if I see somebody who has an infectious disease and I find out from them, you know, where they may have gotten it from and to prevent that future um other infections, you are saving you know substantial amount of money by preventing future infections.

Yeah, but even social returns, you know, are also valuable.

Yeah.

Yes, yeah.

Thank you.

Well, while we wait for her to decide if she does, um thank you so much for the work and for the presentation.

Um I'm gonna be telling my age, you took me back here a little bit when you were talking about WIC, and um I remember growing up we had a little health clinic in our neighborhood, and when I first had my son, we went in there and got his little like immunization card, he still got his yellow card to this day.

Um, but it just was the importance of like living in public housing and having to access to those clinics and being able to not because healthcare has changed so much, and so having that in a community was so powerful.

And I know a lot of my friends that I grew up with, we really took advantage of it.

Our parents because they didn't have it, right?

So, and then um the fact that you have a large um goal to continue WIC is so so important, specifically in today's climate with food injustice, and you know, a lot of folks not even having access.

I wanted to ask about this.

Um I know the Southwood Center has been closed, and it says that we are looking for and you're looking for another space.

Are we any are we in talks about that anyway?

I'm looking at DCL proposition anyway, particularly in the night.

So yeah, I love the hemo about that.

Yeah, I I don't know, do you want to so um yes?

We um we would love to be um able to share space in the um city building in Southside Plaza.

Okay, and so that's something that I know there's still uh to with two work to be done, but um as again as of now, we are they are co-located with our our Southside Plaza WIC location, but um we will be putting on the state side, they'll be putting out an RFP.

Um I'm not sure exactly when if we have a date on that, but to request that.

But our our hope would be that that would be something that then um we could partner with the city on to be co-located in that space.

Yeah, I was thinking a community center.

Could be an option.

Um Yeah, I was thinking the Southside Community Center could be a location because again, for what you offered at Southwood.

I mean, it's a large community, and we do have a lot of stuff already at South Side Plaza.

I'm gonna have to start like in with injecting because we skip it right past us and going down.

Well, and my understanding the so we one of the things so all right, so um most of the resource centers are small enough that they don't really have the capacity, and we're not doing direct clinical services and all of them.

And and there really there isn't as much the need because of the geography.

The South Side WIC or the South Side Resource Center was an exception to that.

We were doing a we have a pretty robust family planning and STI clinic there.

And so that's so part of the challenge is that we need a space where we can provide clinics, and that's so that's not just you know an office and desk, right?

There's certain plumbing you have to have, there's certain capacity that you have to have.

And so um that would be the the issue there is we need something that is either fit for clinic or can be retrofitted to to allow clinic uh space.

I think we got somebody that could help us with that.

We'll talk offline.

But um, yeah, I think this is uh I um I have one other question as it related to um your you asked about the chip.

Um I can't remember what my question was, but if I remember, I'll send it to the DCAO and then we'll follow up.

But thank you so much.

Thank you for the work that you're doing.

Um and hopefully, you know, when we uh we'll see you at Southside Community Center.

Okay, all right.

Thank you so much for your time.

I appreciate your questions.

Yes.

Uh Chair Lynch, did you have any questions?

Moving on.

Uh and we will hear from our uh fabulous DCAO, uh Miss Amy Popovic with updates.

Good afternoon, Vice Chair Jones, maybe Chair Lynch, Councilman Bretton.

Uh all right, a couple of exciting announcements, but uh on the heels of our human rights commission presentation.

Wanted to make sure you all knew that our one and only Anisa Smith was appointed by Governor Spanberger to be on our state LGBTQ advisory board.

Nice.

Um so we'll have her voice and her presentation um and the city's presence on that board.

Uh and one of the things that she's done is launched the first city's um LGBTQ community-based survey uh that will go out next week on the 20th through the Office of Equity and Inclusion.

So once it comes out, we'll want to share it and would love for you all to help share that and promote that so we can really understand and know what our LGBTQ community experiences here in the city.

Uh okay, also um I mentioned this a bit on Monday, but wanted to make sure you all knew we are aligning our registration for elementary school after school programming.

Um, to our knowledge, that has never happened.

That the YMCA and the City of Richmond's Parks and Rec program will um register together on May 1st.

So that uh information has already come out through RPS Direct.

Uh and so we're not only partnering on that same day, but we're also partnering in communication.

So RPS and the city are saying everybody register, um, and then that announcement will come out.

Um, and additionally, there'll be 10% of slots uh saved for newly enrolled children and rising kindergartners at the beginning of school because we know that there are folks who move or there are new to school kindergartners uh whose families might not have been aware of school uh after school registration on May 1st, for example, uh just to really make sure we're increasing access.

Uh, just to really make sure we're increasing access uh that any family who wants to have access to our after school programming does.

So excited about that.

Uh, and then lastly, just a bit about our Office of Aging and Disability Services.

Um, we've got a big spring fling event happening on Thursday, the twenty third at TB Smith.

Um, and then also, although you appointed one um advisory slot today, we do still have a few more slots on our advisory council for that.

So, would love to partner with you all on recruitments for that advisory board.

Thank you so much for that update.

You're welcome.

Um, that's me.

So thank you, Madam Chair, Madam Kirk, and all those that came to speak.

As a brief recap of today's meeting, the committee here presentations from the Virgin Man and Henryco Health Districts and the Human Rights Commission.

From those presentations and discussions, I recorded the following action item.

Um, Councilmember Jones, you've requested a list of human rights commission's members.

That's all I have.

I'd also like to draw your attention to the staff prep memo, or you can find a list of outstanding action items and reminders.

I will follow up on those on the committee's behalf as appropriate.

Looking ahead, the next EHS committee meeting will be held on May 14th at the same time at place.

At this time, the anticipated agenda includes an update from the future of workforce commission and a report out from DNCS on the inclement weather shelter review.

That concludes my report.

Um if there isn't any further business, this meeting is adjourned.

I mean, we can do that schools that have an email like the share figures with their children.