We have quorum.

And read the chamber emergency evacuation plan announcement public speaker guidelines.

Thank you.

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

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

Jones, and you do have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Are there any members present to speak for public comment?

Public comment is now open.

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

Madam Chair, seeing none and no one signed up to speak virtually before the 10 a.m.

deadline.

The public comment period is now closed and back to the committee.

Madam Clerk, I see Mr.

Strauss is raising his hand at the back of the are you, Mr.

Trasser, you're here to speak to the a paper or are you here to speak for an item that is not on the agenda.

Are you here to let me take a wild guess?

Are you here to speak in uh for the um that we've got two on the agenda the sales tax uh resolution to put the on for the referendum and the um uh and the non-departmental grant?

If you are here to speak on items that are not on that agenda, please come for any member will please come forward.

If if you are here to speak on any of those agenda items that are listed, then we will hold your comment until okay, little help from an old friend.

Um, all right, madam clerk.

We are gonna revise uh the if it's if it pleases the committee.

I'm going to um revise the agenda ever so slightly to allow um for our uh superintendent to provide his update first.

I think that's important.

One we get him, uh we can kind of knock out all of the RPS items in one shot.

So you do not have to um stay on uh with us, and your time is very important.

Um, we have our school board chair, welcome.

Uh thank you so much for being here.

Um, thought it would be helpful for you to give and provide your update to us and and help us set the stage, and then we'll go right into uh the the uh the ordinance here.

So um that's before us.

So without further ado, superintendent cameras, if you're able to come and provide your regularly scheduled series of RPS updates.

We'd love to have you join us.

And I know you're sick, so thank you.

Extra credit for I know you're a little under the weather, so extra credit for being here with us today.

We appreciate you.

Thank you, madam chair and members of the committee.

Um, I will jump right in.

Obviously, the most pressing matter that RPS is facing at the moment is the impact of the final state budget on our budget.

In short, we are facing a roughly nine million dollar deficit that was largely driven by the elimination of proposed one-time flexible funding.

Uh, that was in the House version of the General Assembly's budget.

We were slated to receive about 7.6 million in one-time funding.

Um, that was zeroed out in the state's budget.

Additionally, you may have heard about the General Assembly passing a 4% raise for teachers, which is laudable.

However, because of the way uh raises are funded in the Commonwealth, uh, we actually only receive a portion of the cost of that raise, and so, in essence, uh we receive about a third of the cost of the raise, and the locality has to take on the burden of the remaining two-thirds.

As a result, we will not be able to fully draw down the funds for the 4% raise.

We are doing a 2% plus a 1.17% step increase.

So in total, a 3.17% increase for teachers.

We won't unfortunately be able to get all the way to the 4%.

One way to think about this is for every 35 cents roughly we get from the state for a raise.

The locality, in this case, the city of Richmond has to come up with 65 cents, and that is a function of our LCI and the fact that we actually staff beyond the minimum requirements of the state, which causes the cost to increase as well.

We are considering a number of measures to close this gap.

We are trying to avoid any reductions of pay, trying to avoid layoffs, trying to avoid furloughs.

One of the most difficult items that we have been discussing is the elimination of the annual substitute role.

These are individuals who essentially serve on the faculty, they're always there at the school and they jump in if needed at any time.

We have received a lot of feedback from our schools and our constituents who have very clearly stated that that is something that they would like us to avoid.

I think it's fair to say that the board and myself would like to avoid that as well.

So we are looking at alternatives to that.

But as you can imagine, 9 million is a lot to close.

We are also looking at reducing some vacancies and increasing class sizes in a few cases, particularly at the secondary level.

We're doing some analysis now to understand exactly what the impact would be on class sizes.

Of course, we want to limit that as much as possible.

We are more constrained in terms of doing any class size adjustments at the elementary level because we actually receive money from the state by having low class sizes, and so if we were to increase them, we'd actually result in a net loss of funds for RPS.

But we're also turning over every rock, proposing to sell any non-mission critical vehicles, equipment, eliminating all non-essential professional development, travel, food for meetings, and so on, to try to close this gap and be as responsible as we can.

I will say perhaps a solar lining here, is that because we are not receiving these one-time funds from the state, we will not have to deal with the loss of those one-time funds a year from now.

And so we will be in a bit of a stronger position in next fiscal year.

Well, I will let Madam Chair share about the rest of the city if you would like.

Good afternoon, Chair Lynch.

Uh, Councilman Burton, Councilwoman uh Jordan, thank you all so much for the opportunity to share.

Um, uh I won't reiterate what uh Superintendent Cameras has already shared.

I do want to also share that we have uh, in addition to what he has stated, we're looking at ways, particularly with the annual subs to see how many are close to licensure, to see how we can uh create a space for those vacancies where they can jump into those vacancies if they were able to become licensed.

And so I say that to say we're also thinking about creative ways to think outside of the box with the staff that we do have to um try to shuffle some things around, but at the end of the day, $9 million dollars is quite tough.

And so we are turning over every stone to see what other alternatives we can have, which brings us to the request that we sent directly to Mayor of Hula and copies you all on as it relates to some of the surplus potential surplus that might be available based upon some of those uh rental tax uh uh funds um at this time it it it really is just an attempt for us to um leave no stone unturned at the end of the day um as a reminder we had already anticipated and approved a budget with the 21 million dollar shortfall so in essence if we were to have to cut another 9 million dollars that would be a total of 30 million dollars from the budget for this fiscal cycle, which will be devastating to RPS.

And so um we're asking that if that is not a viable option, if there's any emergency funding that the city might be able to explore to help to at least offset, if not all, but some for us to at least put some of those critical line items back, such as those annual subs, mental health services, et cetera, it would be most helpful.

Can you state your name and title for the record, please?

I'm so sorry.

Um, my name is Um Shabonda Fernandez, Chair of Risk Room Public Schools School Board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um and do you all have a timeline of when, and excuse me if you put this in the memo, of when you would need to come to us and have more of a tangible conversation, pass an ordinance, move money around.

I mean, like what does that look like logistically for the city?

We are uh tentatively scheduled to meet again on July 23rd, at which time uh we are hoping to make some final decisions.

I'm cognizant of the fact that it is likely not possible uh for the machinery of the city to work on such a timeline.

That said, I do think if there were um at least some sort of uh way to demonstrate some commitment um of some amount of funding, we could build that into our budget and uh make cuts accordingly.

Um so I think that's probably what would be most ideal given the very short timeline that we're under.

The the reason it's a tight timeline is because as we uh move further into the summer, we of course get closer to the start of the year.

So any changes that we would make would be increasingly disruptive to schools and would become increasingly not viable.

So, for example, um we can't reduce class sizes suddenly the week before school.

That would be highly disruptive to kids and to families.

We can't reduce transportation, we can't even many of the things that we're considering you just can't do in the weeks right before school.

And so we really are trying to make these decisions with input and taking some time but as quickly as possible.

And is this the uh nine million that you need, would that be one time, or is this become baked?

I guess it does, it becomes baked into your ongoing operating budget.

So next year we'll run into the same challenge, right?

Because we did, yes, uh, only to the extent that if we were to receive additional one-time funding, then yes, the issue would persist, and we have would of course need to address it next year, just as we would have had the state given us that one-time funding.

Um, but if we were, for example, to cut five million and received four million in additional funding, then we'd only be facing a four million dollar issue a year from now.

So it really depends on the final balance of cuts and additional funds.

Um we have an existing this is for our maybe for our our vice president here or administration willing, you know, if you want to jump in, chief of staffing would do we have an existing vehicle to take a deeper.

I mean, this is a deeper conversation, right?

I mean, we and this warrants a discussion about not just this year but next year, and really taking a very thoughtful look at our funding.

RPS funding has continued to increase every year.

The needs are not going away.

Um, and we um, you know, we're gonna find ourselves in this predicament, probably for the foreseeable future.

Um, do we have a vehicle like an existing beyond this committee, an existing committee where we could task some city council members, administration, school board members with having a collaborative discussion, just trying to get a handle on our RPS budget, how the city can support you going forward, how we can also make sure we're being accountable to the voters and to the taxpayers, making sure that we have some oversight um and and some collaboration with our school board members and our superintendent.

What what would you suggest?

Um Chair Lynch, I'm happy to take that question to President New Bill administration and see what has been utilized in the past and what might be applicable here, unless administration has another thought.

Thanks.

One thing I'd like to add to what um superintendent just shared, I think the difference between us having to make a decision this year um versus next year, if we had the ability to at least uh be provided the nine million dollar shortfall so close to the school year, it gives us a lot more time to uh analyze, anticipate uh train in some cases and prepare the RPS staff for whatever that cut might be in the in the future.

And so I think um in this particular case, one-time funding would at least give us an opportunity since we've only found out about this last week.

Gives us time and space to really truly do an analytical approach to how we're um going to move forward.

So well, so we're in a bit of a conundrum, right?

So we have yes, this one time funding need.

We're off in August.

I guess we could hypothetically do a special meeting because anything that comes forward is gonna require approval from city council, the um the um the Airbnb money or the the rebate that we're getting back from the convention said I don't that's not just here, right?

That's I'm sure yes, correct.

That's not just here.

That's gonna be released to us in January.

January.

So um, so that that means that there is some considerable digging under the couch cushions and or some really creative thinking that needs to happen um in order to fill that gap any time prior that when the school year starts what when August.

Well, for four of our schools, it starts in two weeks.

Uh July 24th and the rest, August 23th.

Yes, um, yeah, we understand that we will likely have to make reductions that are necessary to keep our budget balanced.

Um I think our request is that when those funds do become available that there's an ongoing conversation about using some of them to help offset some of the reductions that we're likely going to have to make in the next week and a half.

Okay.

Um, so so I'm going to ask our our vice president who's in residency this this afternoon to work with me and the administration to figure out how we're going to solve this um issue and get back to you with a thoughtful response on the memo.

Um obviously lots of need here.

Again, lots of need, continued increase in an ask in budget.

You know, I think having a group come together and and really be intentional about how we do budget planning for the years to come, not just next year, but the years to come is um well past due.

And I think you know that goes nicely and is a nice segue um into some of the other topics that we're talking about this this afternoon.

So anything else?

Well, I did want to just uh say a few more things.

One, I do want to recognize um uh that the mayor and the council did provide us with a record high investment this year.

Um we are deeply appreciative for that.

Um, and I'm grateful that that has been the case for several years under the current administration and the prior administration.

Um fortunately, those investments have paid off.

We've seen record increases in graduation SOLs, and um I can't share too much yet, but all I can say is I think people will be pleased again this year.

Um, and so those investments are paying off.

Um, and so I recognize that these are dollars that have many hands that need them, and so I just want to reiterate how grateful we are.

I also wanted to note um we're grateful to the general assembly, even though we didn't get everything we wanted, we are getting more from the state.

Um at the same time, we are standing here before you because the budget wasn't completed until the day before it was legally required to be completed.

Had we received a budget from the state several months ago, as is typically the case, we would have managed through this cut as part of the normal budget process.

We would have known that before the board adopted a budget, and so um we are extremely grateful to the state.

We also just want to note that when the state does things at the last minute, it does have implications for localities.

And from talking with my colleagues around the state, they too are trying to figure out what to do with the raise, what to do with how the budget turned out, even though we are now in the fiscal year uh that that budget governs.

So just wanted to note both of those things.

I just feel like we can never talk about RPS budget without reminding everyone that we're in this precarious position because we're so disadvantaged by the LCI calculation, and that has real tangible effects for every single one of our students, every single one of our families in a way that the counties do not experience.

So I am heartened that the General Assembly is reviewing that.

I hope they do so with greater urgency.

Thanks.

A great call out by by both of you and and I mean, all the more reason for us.

I mean, you know, I hearken back to last year almost a month ago, well, uh almost a year ago now, um, where we got together and and said, let's let's try to hard charge at our uh at the General Assembly and really get focused on you know the at risk add-on, the LCI, and think together about how to budget locally and support each other.

Um, and so you know, apropos a year later, that we may come back under the same cause and uh with the same mission.

And so I look forward to getting together with you all and partnering with you all.

Um we're in this together.

There's no greater asset and more important resource than our uh the children of RPS.

So we're with you, and we'll figure this out.

So without further ado, and don't go too far, but without further ado, um, Madam Clerk, can you please read uh ordinance 2026 169 into consideration?

Item one, ordinance 2026 169 to amend ordinance number 2026-063 adopted May 11, 2026, which adopted the fiscal year 2027 general fund budget.

Number one, by modifying the name of certain line items and the attachment entitlement general fund budget outside agencies and central appropriations.

Number two, transferring and appropriating certain funds from certain outside agencies and central appropriations line items to such modified line items.

And number three, transferring and appropriating the remaining funds from such modified line items to the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services and authorizing the CAO on behalf of the city to execute necessary documents to affect such appropriations, all for the purpose of providing grants to certain entities and for the procurement of administration services for such grants.

That paper is before the committee.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak in opposition to this paper?

Is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of this paper?

Madam Chair, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed and back to the committee.

All right.

Afternoon, Chair Lynch, Councilmember Button, Dominic Barrett, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the DCAO for Human Services.

Thank you all for having me.

This ordinance represents an important milestone in our work to improve and transition the city's grant making process.

This is something that's been worked on and thought about for a long time, including engaging with council starting sort of summer of 2025 and presenting formally to council in October of 2025.

We issued an RFP in December of 25, and that led to a six-month process, which just wrapped last month, ending with agreements for all four priority areas with three grant makers, Culture Works for Arts and Culture, the United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg, and the children and families and economic mobility categories and Richmond and Henrico Public Health Foundation and the health category.

It was a long process, but we did want to get it right to the degree that is possible, knowing of course there will be things that we will learn from and improve ahead of next year and next cycle.

But we felt it was important to take our time to get this process as right as possible with the best providers and the best agreements that could be negotiated to carefully steward taxpayer dollars.

Because the RFP process wasn't complete before the adoption of the budget.

Funds were kept in reserve lines for each priority area.

And so now we are coming back to you to formally move those to the appropriate areas.

This new process, as we've discussed with you all, does not hand off accountability.

The city retains an active oversight role, and each grant maker will be responsible for reporting on the performance obligations to the city.

You will continue to get an annual presentation from the administration, an annual report summarizing outcomes and impacts of all grants the city is making through this new process.

We've given a framework to the grant makers defining each priority area.

That framework was informed by feedback from council.

We are actively as recently as three hours ago working with grantmakers to finalize application guidelines, eligibility criteria, and other details ahead of applications opening potentially as soon as next month.

As we've shared with council a couple weeks ago, we're holding our official information session for the nonprofit community on the 29th, which will be two days after the day we anticipate this ordinance hopefully being adopted to walk those nonprofits through what they can expect next.

We've already gotten 120 RSVPs for that, and we expect to get more in the coming weeks.

Thank you.

Committee members, any discussion.

I just wanted to comment that I think there's a great milestone for good governance here in the city, and I'm really glad to see us uh reaching it.

Yeah, actually, that's a great call out.

We started working on this.

Gosh, three, four years ago.

So this is the fruits of a lot of years of labor and congratulations to Amy and Dom and everyone who's worked on this, Eva, um, who's worked on this so hard to get us to where we are.

So with that, motion to approve.

Second.

The committee is motioned, the committee is voting on the motion for item one 2026-169 to council with the recommendation to approve.

Mr.

Bradson.

Aye.

Chair Lynch.

Aye.

That motion has been approved.

All right, Madam Clerk, um, next paper into the role resolution 2026 R20028.

Okay, item two, resolution 2026 R028.

To order the submission to the qualified voters of the city of the question of whether the city should be authorized to levy a local sales tax at a rate not to exceed one percent, the revenues from which shall be used solely for capital projects for the construction or renovation of public school facilities for a referendum thereon.

That paper is before the committee.

Madam Clerk, are there any members present for public comment.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak in opposition to this paper?

Is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of this paper?

Madam Chair, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed and back to the committee.

Okay.

Would the patron who is present like to speak to this paper?

Thank you so much, Chair Lynch.

Council President Newville and I, as Vice President of Council, put forward this resolution in response to what has been a legislative request from not just council but from the mayor as well as our school board.

And I know that we've received a letter, a resolution that they have passed recently in support of this.

So every budget year, we face the same struggles to accommodate all of our needs with limited revenue sources and limited tools to tap into potential revenue.

This is another option that the state is now granting to all localities across Virginia, not just I think nine previously that had utilized it.

Whereas if it goes to referendum and Richmond Durers decide that they support a 1% sales tax to go towards school construction and major innovations, council could then implement through another ordinance that would be able to levy up to 1%.

And then we would pick a date of when that would be implemented.

So that is broad strokes of the timeline.

I think we've all been clear on the needs that schools have every year that we struggle to meet and that we do not fully receive funding for from the state.

So this is another tool for our toolbox to help diversify the revenues that we can bring in to cover our city's needs.

Thank you.

Members, anyone from the administration a comment on the readings.

Chair Lynch, Vice President Jordan, Councilmember Breton, and others.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

On behalf of Mayor Avula, we are so appreciative of the governor and general assembly for providing this much needed tool to Virginia localities.

Here in Richmond, it offers a meaningful opportunity to address critical needs in our school system.

The council set that process in motion with your recently introduced resolution.

And while there are certainly more steps to go through until a local 1% sales tax for schools would become a reality and ultimately voters would decide.

Many of these conversations have happened in the last few weeks, and several more will happen over the next few.

Richmond public schools well prepared for success and connected to opportunities for further learning and career development.

So when it looked like the state was likely to give us this tool, we pulled together finance, budget, our financial advisors, Davenport, to discuss the policy options and timeline, but we had to wait on the final legislation to give guidance before we could answer a lot of the important questions, and as already stated that uh guidance and final passage only came to us at the end of June.

We have received some initial estimates of what this tax could yield for school construction.

So we've asked David Rose to be here to share with you.

We have met with our bond council to ask some questions of interpreting timelines and qualifying projects.

We have a briefing this upcoming Tuesday to do a more thorough dive into our fiscal health and revenue forecasting so that Mayor Vula can put together a comprehensive plan that benefits both residents and schools.

We will have a fuller picture to share with council and the public ahead of council's anticipated vote on July 27th, including revenue projections, budgetary impacts, and implementation details, of course, like who does the mechanics of this.

So the state is the one that actually administers the tax and then gives it to the localities, things like that that I know are on people's minds.

So to give you an early look into some of that, we have asked our financial advisors to be here.

And so thank you so much to David Rose for being here.

Come on up.

Good afternoon, Chair Lynch and Councilmember Breton as well as Vice President Jordan.

Again, my pleasure to be here.

If I could, maybe I'll ask Michael Wynne from our from the city staff to join me in case we have any questions perhaps that I may not be able to answer.

Again, appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Briefly said, in the roughly 30 years that we've served as your financial advisor, this legislation is the potential to provide the most significant financial tool in the toolbox that we will see and I've seen in these 30 years.

In fact, in the 45 years or so that I've been doing this, I would say this is perhaps the number one tool potentially to make a game changer.

So with that said, we looked at your 2025 comprehensive audit, the ACFA as you call it, and in there, you'll see that the local option sales tax, the 1% that was alluded to, uh produces some $55 million.

When you adjust it for what they call certain haircuts that are required, whether it be for food and beverage as well as for personal hygiene, we are preliminarily looking at about 45 million dollars a year, which is what the net impact would be coming directly to the city.

So one of the things that we are going to do as uh the chief of staff just indicated is to work closely with staff as well as with the mayor's office and to see what the impact that will be and how fast the impact that will be.

What I can tell you already today is this the legislation effectively says that from the time a resolution is approved, you are able to take these monies in for a 20-year period.

So, in reality, the way the structuring of the legislation works, it'll probably be closer to about 19 and a half years that we'll be able to collect these monies.

So again, we will look at that, put that together.

In addition, what we'll also see is that we think these monies will be able to speed up what is already your 20-year $800 million program.

As you know, that program was started about nine or 10 years ago, and it was $800 million with the idea that roughly every five years or so, about 200 million give or take would be borrowed.

That's been on track, however, we still have about 450 million of those dollars that still need to be borrowed.

This, in effect, these dollars here could take care of that, and we also believe could accelerate some of the capital timing that has been in that 20-year program.

So, with your um uh willingness and ability, uh, we will be back as as uh Lawson said in just a few days talking with uh the mayor and those folks in a deeper dive, and then of course coming back and we want to answer any questions or try to make sure we have any questions that you have.

Um, but we see this as very positive.

Uh we also see this as very positive to the city's overall credit rating because it's another tool that takes away from having to just rely on the general fund for the balance of that some $800 million, that $450.

So always around, we think this strengthens the overall city and the schools.

I thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Don't go far.

Okay, questions.

Um, so we're thinking the the sales uh the one percent sales tax increase would generate about 45 million dollars a year.

In this current year, meaning in the fiscal year at the end of 2025, it was about 45 million.

One of the really positive things, though, is that if you look at the history of the sales tax, both in Richmond and just nationally, when you tie it back to inflation, um, we are also going to realize that short of deflation, which again is hard to imagine any long period of time of that, um, we will see not 45 million, but probably a considerable amount more than that in subsequent years.

So this really has more than 45 million, it's not necessarily stagnant, but it really has the ability just to give you a sense of that.

Um, if this grew on average two percent a year, that 45 million by the end of that roughly 20-year period is over 65 million.

So it's a very meaningful and important potential tool.

And how do you know?

I mean, if you don't know, that's okay, we'll just have it prepared or maybe have it when we when we do a deeper dive here.

But what do we know what percentage of that 45 million is uh in uh um brick and mortar retail versus online sales?

I do not know that.

No, we that would have to come from probably one of the commissioners.

Okay.

And the the 45 million is based off of the following categories: clothing and foot footwear, electronics and appliances, furniture, home decor, office supplies, restaurant purchases, least or rented items, and short-term lodging, the hotel, the bed tax.

Okay, and certainly exclude so that the current meals tax that's funding down the in totality what was 800 million dollars of debt service.

That is what that rate is what 1.5 percent.

What is the that program?

That's a very good question.

What it is is that 1.5 percent, um, is roughly about 12 million dollars.

Every every one percent of the meals tax is about $8 million today, so that one and a half, however, what was passed back uh around 2015 or whatever year that exactly was 2017.

Uh, yes, um, that actually really talks about it's 20 percent of the overall meals tax that is dedicated to debt service.

And uh Mr.

Wynne's got some of those pieces of information or could provide that.

Um, but the good news is those dollars um have been going, and we can demonstrate they have gone directly towards uh the schools as intended.

Um but the point is um those dollars are available for those schools and that debt service.

We would still need to find dollars for the next 450 million dollars.

So this could be that direct tool that actually takes care of that and takes pressure off the general fund because absent this one percent, we're gonna have to come up with those dollars for some 450 million uh some other way.

So quick math meals tax, 12 million dollars a year, sales tax, potential 45 million dollars a year with a two percent increase, projected increase over time.

Okay, um uh superintendent cameras.

If you may, just to give us a excuse me, sir.

Can you state your name and title for the record, please?

Yes, David Rose, uh financial advisor on behalf of Davenport and Company here in Richmond.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Superintendent Camaris, if you may, because this is you know intrinsically linked to capital construction projects and and what you all have contemplated in your facilities master plan.

Can you give us a quick snapshot of a when exactly the facilities master plan will be voted on and completed, so that we can kind of game that out with the voting of this, and then B.

If you can share or illuminate what you know that the next tranche of capital improvement projects, big projects are for you all, and then because this language does actually allow.

Renovation and rehabilitation of buildings, what is on the docket for you all, big ticket items on the dock, so we can get a size of like you know what's on this side of the house, what we need short.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

First, let me just say uh thank you to Mayor Ovula and thank you to council member Jordan and the entire council for your support of this effort.

As Mr.

Rose indicated, I do think it is a generational opportunity to ensure that all students in Richmond Public Schools have buildings that are worthy of them.

And we know, for example, right now that the average age of our buildings is about 66 years.

We have 12 buildings that are more than 100 years old, and so uh we have thousands of students who unfortunately attend school in buildings that do not speak our motto of teaching, leading, and serving with LAV.

And so we are thrilled for this opportunity and grateful for everyone who has already voiced their support.

As for your question, in the document that we prepared, we have identified about 23 million dollars of immediate maintenance needs.

These are things like roofs, HVAC, and so on.

Um, this is on top of tens of millions of needs that we are trying to address currently with our current allocations.

Um again, want to thank uh the mayor and the council for um advancing us uh nearly 10 million dollars of maintenance funding to help us get through some projects, but these are in addition to those, and our independent facilities assessment suggests there are roughly 30 million dollars of annual need for deferred maintenance, so there's no shortage of need on the new construction.

Is that is there so there's 23 million dollars of immediate need, in addition, you have another 30 million dollars in uh the the estimates are in the out years.

Okay, there are likely th roughly 30 million of needs from deferred maintenance.

We want to make sure, for example, that the buildings that we built with the meals tax are maintained properly, so that in 15 years we're not saying River City needs a brand new roof and a new HVAC system because they've been maintained over that period, and so um it's partly to make up for the past and it's partly to ensure that we don't replicate the problem for the future.

As for new construction, the remaining two projects that are in the approved facilities plan from the school board are the new CTE Center on the south side at Mori Street.

Phase one of that plan is estimated to cost about 65 million.

Um, we have about 20 million in available state funding for that, and about 35 million in city funding from the existing tranche of 200 million for new school construction.

That leaves us only about 10 million short for phase one.

Phase two is a much larger project, estimated to be about 80 to 100 million.

Um we don't have funds for any of that.

Um, as you know, the building is about 300,000 square feet, and so we try to bite off a portion of that in phase one and then move on to phase two.

Additionally, Woodville Elementary, the rebuild there, um, is slated to cost about 50 million.

We have from the state 12.4 million, those funds though have a timer on them.

We need to begin construction soon, or they will revert back to the state, and so the one percent uh sales tax is extremely beneficial to us if it were to pass in that it would enable us to begin construction on this project, which means we would not lose that 12.4 million.

So there's a delta of about 37 million on that project.

Those are the existing projects and the existing facilities plan.

The new master facilities plan, there's an engagement process which is happening this summer and this fall with a first draft to the school board this winter, a final draft later this year.

But there are several projects that we know would likely be near the top of the list, including several schools on the south side that need to be either rebuilt or fully renovated.

And so of course we don't want to jump ahead of the community input, but we're eager to gather all of that once everybody is back in town come August and September.

Happy to take any questions.

So where are so the 65 million?

20 of which is state 35 is left over from the original tranche of 150, whatever that appropriation we got.

Have we already started in on phase one?

We are putting out a design bid this summer.

Okay.

And we hope to then put out a construction bid once the design is complete.

Um it is very difficult to put out a construction bid until you have all the money for the project, and so knowing if this were to pass, that would enable us to ensure that we did have all the funds, okay.

Um, and the um uh and then of course there's no uh commitment for the additional 80 million dollars that you'll need for phase two at this time, correct?

Um and there's no unless you know we have some magical way to accelerate the debt service and get more money in the door, which for which you're making a good point for sales tax, I see.

And then Woodville, you have 2.4 million that will dissipate if you do not use it by what date.

There's no hard and fast date.

We've already been granted a reprieve by the state in anticipation that the 1% might pass, and then we would have the funds.

I do think if the 1% were not to pass, we would lose those funds.

Okay.

Old statement.

Um, but I like it.

All right.

Uh, and then this also does not contemplate your new facilities master plan, which we were hoping would be forthcoming in September.

But if I'm reading between the lines is not going to be out until some time.

It's really a question of wanting to do a comprehensive community engagement process, which is just difficult to do over the summer when so many families are away.

So that will kick off in earnest, August, September, October, and we'd like to bring a draft to the board initial draft for their consideration in the November December timeline.

And then I imagine there will be several drafts as we get feedback from the board and the public.

Okay.

Would be helpful to have some early preview, maybe of what that facilities master plan would hold.

Um, good messaging on the new C CTE Center, the Woodville, um, you know, that that I think is easy for folks to grasp some semblance of an idea and a plan for what would be in the forthcoming facilities master plan, would certainly help people latch on to something uh tangible as they contemplate um the additional tax.

Absolutely.

Um I do want to note also the Woodville project is shovel ready.

Okay, there's a design that is complete, is ready to go.

Um, okay.

It I've done a lot of not be any, I mean, Council Member Brighton, any questions?

Uh I do have a few, and I think they kind of relate to how quickly we're gonna have more information because, you know, we got the news pretty recently.

We need to act very quickly in order to get this on the ballot, and I'm glad that we are acting quickly.

Um, and I kind of can think of there's basically three milestones.

There's this upcoming vote in council in order to begin the ballot question.

There will be the the date when everyone has to vote for the ballot initiative, and then finally there will be come a time when we vote to actually implement the tax.

So there's gonna be three different milestones.

And so I'm wondering, um, yeah, similar to Chair Lynch's question, you know, how soon will the will the council and the voters have a sense of how this money's going to be used, and you know, and when it comes to our vote this month, and then the voters' vote in November, and then finally the implementation, like how much will people know when they're going to the ballot?

Yeah, I think we can be very clear about a the two projects that are before us, B, the very concrete maintenance needs that our buildings require.

Uh, and three, I think we can be very clear about which buildings are currently uh over oversubscribed that have trailers that likely need to be rebuilt or are of such an age that they're gonna require rebuilding.

And so while we won't have the facilities plan done by that point, I think we'll have a clear picture of um the top level items that need the most attention.

And can we expect that there will be any special reporting or um on the way these funds get used?

You know, there's gonna be a lot of yeah, just you know, public attention on the additional spending and and how might we expect to be able to get transparency into that?

We're happy to report as often and on whatever topics you would like.

Um I ask questions of of other groups as well.

Um, well, similar question around time information.

I can imagine that um, you know, when it comes time to actually understand the implementation of this, you know, we may be contemplating reducing other tax rates, for example.

How soon will we know, you know, what our plan is?

So, if voters are going to the the ballot in November and they're imagining agreeing to 100% increase in the sales tax, you know, will we by then have already made it clear that we intend to possibly cut some other tax rate?

And how soon would we have a uh be able to tell the public that?

Um one question might be a question for the administration like how quickly could they provide an analysis of a recommendation?

For example, is that something that we would have by this month or by November?

Like, how quickly could we get that that sort of analysis?

Uh, so we have the chief of staff and yes, that's what I was trying to insinuate in my comments.

We will be um giving you all an update on a more comprehensive plan before your vote on July 27th.

I think we can all appreciate that like there are some details that we don't know yet.

There are three different milestones before anything actually gets implemented, but the more that we know the sooner we do it, the more we can all be, you know, on the same page and all, you know, be in agreement that we that we see that this has a good idea.

So I'm glad to hear that we'll have that level of information this month because we'll really be improve the case we can make um as we go into November.

Um there's a lot of questions I'm sure people have, and I'd love to keep asking a few more.

All right.

Um this actually goes back to RPS, I believe.

Um, do we expect that this funding is likely to be used for financing bonds, or that it's probably just gonna be used year to year?

Like in how would we and how important is that distinction?

Uh I would expect it would be bonded, as doing so with leverage the funds for much bigger capital projects.

And also I wanted to ask back to the administration now.

I'm sorry.

I should um if there was um much analysis done on the kind of uh on who these taxes impact.

You know, when you compare this to the meals tax, for example, uh, is this tax more progressive, less progressive?

Does it impact Richmond residents more or less?

Do we have that information?

We do not currently have the information, no, but those are all questions that are being asked, um, figuring out which sources can answer which one.

So, for instance, um, you know, there's certain things we can forecast based on history uh like revenue projection, but knowing the source of tax information, a treasurer can only answer certain of that information.

So we're working on those things, but no, we do not have those specific answers.

Uh, I imagine that part of the intent of the state legislators in what they exempted out of the sales tax of course was to address some of those issues it wouldn't you know there's no sales tax on groceries and it exempts hygiene and you know those sorts of things so I think there's that's kind of already baked in as a part of what you're asking but um we we do know uh like from some other localities generally like percentage wise that your local sales tax is often paid by 40 to 50 percent people who do not live there but like that's not a Richmond number that's a other you know others that have studied this what are the what are the typical habits of when you're collecting a local option sales tax is that paid by other people visiting your locality but working working on that and some we know we will have the answers and we don't have them yet and then some we're not sure we will have a full complete picture on some of the data just as we're finding out its sourcing.

Yeah.

Yeah well that's my impression is that this is you know going to be a great way to diversify our tax base.

I also I'm optimistic the voters will value the transparency of knowing that the amount is going directly to school construction.

I think people will value knowing that's going to something that is important to them.

And I think that we will really benefit from being able to explain um how it the impact of it compares to other taxes that we may be able to you know reduce in balance because I know that we have an you know affordability issues across all of society and all of our markets and so we do want to be um conscious of that as this goes forward.

So that information's gonna be critical in making the case um to ourselves and to our voters as well so that's important.

Absolutely agree and it you know you raised a great um point and I've heard from a number of stakeholders on this in the primary group that is um concerned is our restaurateurs and they have you know really beared uh the brunt obviously of meals tax and um they are now you know some of the restaurant purchases might see an increase um if there is any way to offer them relief right I think that would be helpful um I know you have a lot of restaurants in your district that have expressed uh concern not necessarily that no one doesn't support um the new school construction or rehabilitation or renovation but that it is important that we um take their uh these are these are families these are small businesses that are really at the heartbeat of our city and you know a very important stakeholder group that makes the city of Richmond so great and unique.

So I do want to be mindful of how we involve them and include them because they are residents of this city they're employers of this city and um have been really great contributors to the city go ahead council I wanted to piggyback on that specific question to say if for example we were going to reduce the meals tax right to balance this out um I want to this might be a question for our even for our lawyers to um because I I believe that the legal requirement of this is that that we that we cannot simply use this tax and like take away the same money and have it replace existing money right it needs to be a net positive.

So I want to make sure that legally if if the meals tax were to be reduced but obviously it's a net positive for the schools I want to make sure that would still be in compliance with with this legislation.

Yeah and make sure that's that that's true.

Yeah I would um these are all great I would encourage us um to use a little bit more time these come I as a reference we've talked to bond counsel about that very question so we we're doing that but we need to have conversations and share information um as it comes in in a responsible way so these are all really big conversations.

So they're the right questions but I would um I would I would ask us not to try to answer them today, but where we should answer them in the future.

100% and certainly do not expect anyone to have an answer uh today, but these are good.

These are good to set us up for you know what what other what our colleagues will will want answers to, I think on the 27th, and a good analysis.

You know, for example, you know, the strong number 45 million dollars a year versus 12 million dollars a year.

There you go.

I mean, that's that those are the types of numbers that we need to see, and I and I trust that Davenport will do their um homework diligently to kind of get us a clearer picture of what it's gonna look like out in the out years.

Uh, last thing I was gonna say is that in terms of this paper, um, I do think it's very important that we that we move forward with it, and I you know, want to add myself as a co-co-patron to it as well because I think it's very important that we bring this to the voters.

Um, with that, with that motion, Madam Clerk.

And so I also motion that we um recommend approval.

All right, so move.

Madam Clerk Collarall.

The committee is voting on the motion to forward item two, resolution 2026-r 028 to cancel with a recommendation to approve.

Mr.

Bretson, aye.

Chair Lynch.

Aye.

That motion has been approved.

All right, thank you, Madam Clerk.

Um next order of business.

Is our board vacancies?

I'm gonna roll through these as quickly as we can.

See, let's get those prepared, madam.

Yep.

Oh, there we go.

Step right up.

Good afternoon, Chair Lynch, Councillor Breton, Kylie Kessaker, Deputy City Clerk.

The report before you captures current and projected vacancies through November, starting with the Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks.

There is one vacancy for a sixth district representative, and with the support of Councilor Robertson, we have an application from Alexa Santistabon.

Aging and Disabilities Advisory Board.

There's one vacancy for a resident who's a senior citizen, and an application from Mary Player, 9th district resident.

There are two vacancies for an attorney or paralegal whose farmer office handles senior citizen or persons with disabilities cases and has experience addressing ADA issues.

We have one application submitted by Christopher Roberson, and Mr.

Roberson is supported by the current board chair.

Moving on to the future of workforce commission, there's one vacancy for an individual meeting the required criteria.

We have applications from Noel Cortez, 7th District resident, Seal Desai, 6th District Employment, Shanty Jackson, 7th District Employment, and I would note Ms.

Jackson is also a member of the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority.

These applications were shared with the commission chair.

However, we did not receive any feedback.

There are two vacancies for resident of the region served by the college, and we have one application from second district resident Lisa Harris.

For Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Inc.

There are three vacancies for a member of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and Good Standing.

We have applications from Anna Aquino, Second District, Lisa Harrison, 2nd District, Vic Murphy, 1st District, and a member of the Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks, and Mary Parker, 3rd District.

And I would just note that Anna Aquino, Vic Murphy, and Mary Parker have been referred by Lewis Ginter, CEO.

The Maggie L.

Walker Initiative Citizens Advisory Board has two vacancies for residents of a city council district within the city with a poverty rate of at least 20%.

And we have two applications, Kaibanks, 7th District, and Christian Washington, 6th District.

And lastly, the Richmond Public Library Board has two vacancies for a qualified voters of the city.

We have applications from Howard Brooks, 9th District, Ashley Mason, 2nd District, Nicholas Olson, 3rd District, Linda Peachin, 3rd District, Samuel Runner, 7th District, Jolene Trainer, 8th District, and Christopher Woody, 8th District, and a member of the Safe and Healthy Streets Commission.

We receive written support on behalf of the board for any two of the four applicants from those districts that are not currently represented on the board, which would be the third, seventh, and 9th.

So that would include Howard Brooks, Nicholas Olson, Linda Peach, and Samuel Runner.

And I would just reiterate that there are only two vacancies there at this time.

And that concludes the report.

All right, you're ready.

We're gonna do the slightly fast.

Okay.

My motion, we're gonna vote in block to vote Alexa Sandsibon, Mary Plier, Christopher Robertson in block to those to the uh parks and recreation and aging and disability advisory boards respectively, the future workforce commission, Noel Cortez, for the Human Rights Commission, Drake Randolph, for J.

Sergeant Reynolds, Lisa Harrison, for Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, Anna Aquino, Lisa Harrison, and Mary Parker, for Maggie Walker Initiative, the Citizens Advisory Board, Kai Banks and Christian Washington, or the uh continued Alison Fisher, Sandra Smith, and Balcom Jones for that same board.

And for the Richmond Public Library Board, Linda Petchin and Samuel Runner.

My second that.

I'm so sorry, Chair Lynch.

Uh, one thing I forgot to mention for the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

Um, if it's the desire of the committee to appoint Lisa Harrison, the CEO asks that consideration of pre-application be continued to the next quarterly review cycle to allow time for him to make contact with Ms.

Harrison and discuss her interests in serving in the great.

We'll acquiesce to that, no problem.

Thank you.

All right, so with that amendment to the motion, Adam Clerk.

The committee is voting on the motion to forward the board's appointments and reappointments, recommendations to council for approval as stated, and to continue consideration of applications for appointment to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

Mr.

Briggs.

Aye.

Chair Lynch.

Aye.

That motion has been approved.

All right.

Now, next up, we've got our lustrous DCAO, Amy Popovich, thank you so much for being here with us.

And to follow, we have discussion of our ongoing committee agenda and the staff report.

Good afternoon, Chair Lynch, Councilman Breton.

A few updates for you all.

Just as a reminder, the July 1 marked a few portfolio changes in human services.

Parks recreation and community facilities is now in the operations portfolio.

And the Office of Community Wealth Building in Housing and Economic Development and Planning.

And then the Office of Neighborhood Engagement in the chief, the CAO's office.

We'll continue to work with council to make sure legislation is routed to the most appropriate committee and reflects the will of council.

We imagine there continue to be items from those departments that will still come before EHS as relevant.

And we really focused on one ensuring there was a cohesive transition strategy for June.

But also the aim here is to break down silos.

For example, that that parks and rec continues to stay close to myself and to Eva Cullen and folks, but that on the parks side, there's a stronger connection to departments like DPW, and really strengthen that.

So that will be our aim moving forward.

Two just wanted to highlight youth summer programming has kicked off.

So between the 600 kids in parks and rec camps, 500 young adults in youth works at OCWB, 55 youth lifeguards, and 30 kids in our camp at Justice Services.

That's over 1,200 kids that we have actively involved in healthy summer activities.

Woohoo!

Thank you.

Also excited to share that we recently got funded for two new and one continued award from uh Virginia's opioid abatement authority.

Uh so wanted to share with you all we're receiving more funds.

Uh the first one is for about $300,000 from OAA on housing stabilization for substance impacted individuals.

Um so this will be uh a program where um individuals who are impacted by substance use receive housing um as a pilot.

The second one is awarded $47,000 about a partnership with EMS, where the EMS can initiate that first dose of it's called bupenorphine, also known as Suboxone, to really help bridge.

So two really um exciting evidence-based practices that we'll be able to bring here in partnership with the opioid abatement authority.

We were also awarded another essentially $76,000 to continue our resource mapping project.

So excited grants that we got.

And then I'll just finish by sharing that on June 26th, Governor Spanberger appointed Greg Hopkins to the Virginia Criminal Justice Board.

That's the second Richmond City Human Services representative on a statewide appointed board.

So thank you so much for the updates.

Thank you so much, Amy.

And we appreciate you and all of your staff's hard work, and we are very excited to hear about the uh we did have a request to um to hear about some of those opioid abatement funds and where they're going.

I know I've got at least two council colleagues that um wanted to get a deeper dive on that, so we'll work with you offline to get that, and then of course um we are going to uh other updates restart our our work um in the family crisis funding.

I know we have some changes coming up, so I wanted to get your your updates on that for our next meeting.

But other than that, thank you so much for the partnership and appreciate it.

Um staff report.

Ms.

Whitney, you got anything for us?

Okay, did you want to discuss cancellation of the August meeting first?

Let's discuss cancellation of the August meeting, committee members.

Um that would probably be consistent with the lack of any other council meetings.

Um, schools out for the summer, sounds like it's all right.

So, no August meeting.

Uh, however, I do want us to not lose focus on obviously the impending uh need that RPS is expressed, and we will be working with the administration to get that group together either by using our uh, you know, some other ad hoc committee that we get together, the funding formula group that we had going on.

Some with some somebody of us um needs to to be working through August.

So I want folks to understand the work is not going to stop.

We're just not gonna have an EHS meeting.

We do want to be responsive to the that need that has come before us.

Anything else, Ms.

Brown?

Did you also want to discuss the EHS schedule through February 2027?

How you feel about the draft schedule?

I'm going to vote to or propose that we table that so that we can give it some more thought.

I think that's a robust discussion that we need to have amongst not just this committee, but my count council colleagues, as we might have topics that I'm not aware of now, but folks want to bring before us like the opioid abatement um settlement and some other some other items.

So I think we need to do our homework for the month of August and kind of regroup on agenda setting and and polling the audience, not just our council colleagues, but also our community.

See what our our members of the public want to have us talk about.

So and look at.

So with that, I'd say let's take a look.

Okay, that works.

So again, thank you, Madam Chair, Madam Clerk.

As a brief recap of today's meeting, the committee heard updates from Richmond Public Schools, our DCAO of Human Services and Davenport and Co.

from those updates.

I recorded the following key action items.

So, Chair Lynch, you requested a follow-up with council leadership and admin to respond appropriately to the recent memo sent by RPS.

Admin will also provide counsel with a comprehensive briefing regarding some of the questions around the 1% sales tax by the July 27th meeting.

Chair Lynch, you requested an early preview of the RPS master facilities plan when it becomes available.

You also requested to work with admin on the opioid abatement funds.

Um, there will also be no August meeting, and we will give more thought on the draft schedule that was prevented to you for the rest of the EHS committee meetings through February.

So looking ahead, the next EHS committee meeting will be held on September 10th at the same time and location.

At this time, the anticipated agenda includes an update on the non departmental grant restructuring as well as a presentation from RRHA, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

And that concludes my report.

Never cease to amaze me, Ms.

Brown.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate you.

All right.

Approval minutes.

The minutes to be approved are for June 11, 2026 for the education and human services standing committee meeting held at 2 p.m.

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

Those minutes have been approved.

Thank you.

All right, and with that, thank you all for hanging in there till the end.

This adjourns our last education and human services meeting of the city council session.