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The Next Campaign
I try to keep politics out of this monthly newsletter.
If you have not been receiving my campaign updates and you wish to receive updates on this new campaign,
please drop my campaign a line and we'll get you on the list for campaign updates.
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PTAC Summer Camp Fair
Working to plan your child's summer and need help?
This event brings together over 40 summer camps of all kinds!
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Tax Help
Starting this weekend, eligible Alexandria residents can receive assistance in completing their Federal taxes.
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The City Academy
The City is accepting applications for participating in our City Academy.
The nine week program, beginning in March, will help you understand the way your government works!
You may apply online today.
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Citizens Police Academy
It's time to start the next class of the Citizens Police Academy.
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President's Day Parade
On Monday, February 19th from 1 PM - 3 PM, the parade is always an essential part of the season!
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Be A Snow Buddy
Snow Buddies work across our City to help residents who are unable to clear snow during inclement weather.
Sign up today!
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It's hard to believe that it is already February!
This month the Council will begin the most intense part of the year as we start our annual budget process.
This forum will bring together the many City agencies and partners who are working to address this public health emergency facing our nation.
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Investing in Our Infrastructure
In August, the City suspended the use of our Public Safety Firing Range. The facility where personnel from the Police Department and Sheriff's Department train and qualify on service weapons, was experiencing safety issues and could no longer operate.
Last month, students from both Alexandria middle schools spent instructional time at home due to facility issues at those buildings.
Decades of under-investment in our basic infrastructure is leaving our community unable to provide critical services.
Despite large efforts to address deferred capital investment in recent years, the City stands at a crossroads. With a perfect storm of infrastructure needs for school, sewer, city facilities, transportation and recreation, the practices of the past will not sustain us in the future.
In adopting that budget, we knew that doing things the way we had always done them was not sufficient. To ask that much of our taxpayers we also had to take a dramatic step forward and bring together the disparate visions of the City and School municipal facilities plans.
That $500 million of unfunded capital investments serves as a hidden debt on our municipal balance sheet. These are obligations that need to be met eventually. Yet instead of the 2.5% rate (the true interest cost of our most recent debt issuance) that we are paying for the City's actual debt, this hidden debt is costing us much more.
With construction costs
climbing at an annual rate of nearly 5% and the costs of delay/defer (patching, retrofitting, and otherwise "buying time") with existing aged infrastructure growing regularly, this hidden debt is far more onerous than the well-managed municipal debt load the City carries.
The Task Force has recommended a rethinking of the processes and collaboration associated with the development of both the City and Alexandria City Public Schools' (ACPS) Capital Improvement Programs.
Implementing these recommendations will require both the City and ACPS to step out of our comfort zones and modify processes that been utilized for decades.
Their recommendations have provided the Council and School Board with a charge to unify our capital budgeting processes.
Doing so will more efficiently utilize our resources and respect the sacrifice of the taxpayers who have provided them.
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Helping Small Businesses Succeed
Any new small business owner is taking an enormous risk. They are betting their resources on the future success of an idea. It's a risk that our system relies on. It results in businesses that provide products and services that enrich our lives. As taxpayers, it supports tax revenue that eases the burden on residential taxpayers. For individuals, it provides careers.
In government, we have an obligation to provide a regulatory process that is efficient, predictable, and expedient. Sometimes our existing processes fall short of that mark.
The changes recently adopted affect many areas. They will create additional areas eligible for administrative special use permits, and reduce the number of applications that require any special use permit.
Many new businesses seeking to operate in Alexandria require a Special Use Permit by virtue of the zoning of the property they have
chosen. Our zoning code allows certain uses in many zones but only under special conditions.
A normal Special Use Permit first undergoes a thorough review by our City Staff. The City Staff then makes a recommendation to the City's Planning Commission. The Planning Commission ultimately makes a recommendation to the City Council.
At any step in that process, the application can become bogged down, can be substantially modified, or rejected. It is an unpredictable process that introduces both cost and uncertainty to a nascent small business who can rarely avoid either.
Last month, Council took another significant step in improving the processes for these small businesses. Over 40% of the Special Use Permits heard by Planning Commission and City Council are when a business requires a parking reduction, a request to reduce off-street parking requirements.
Up until last week, the City's commercial parking standards were based on legislation adopted in 1963. These standards apply when a new business seeks to operate in an existing space and when a landowner seeks to build new commercial space. For new development they provide for how many off-street spaces must be created and for a new business in an existing space, they provide for how many off-street spaces must be found.
The City Council and Planning Commission have routinely adopted deviations from these standards to eliminate the need of newly opening small businesses to provide off-street parking that in most of our business corridors simply does not exist. Yet the process of making that request is time-consuming and uncertain.
Over the years, City government has worked to make changes to our processes to support small business growth.
In 2003, the City Council approved the Arlandria Plan
, which pioneered the use of Administrative Special Use Permits. Under the Administrative Special Use Permits, the staff can apply defined criteria and provide a new business with permission to operate (if it operates under a pre-approved set of restrictions), avoiding the necessity for hearing before the Planning Commission and City Council.
Every day of delay is money for a new business. These new changes will help our small businesses be successful in Alexandria.
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Transparency in Our Government
Five years ago, we made improvements to the motions that the City Council makes and votes on to initiate executive sessions. These changes serve to provide our residents with more information about the closed sessions that Council conducts.
Five years ago, we moved the Council's work sessions from the Council Work Room (off camera) into the Council chambers so that the public can more easily observe our discussions.
Before going into executive session, the Council must vote on the reason for the executive session. After the executive session concludes, the Council must return into public view and each member must certify that we complied with the law during the private session.
I hope the public finds these new measures of transparency helpful in shedding additional light on Council's actions.
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Short Term Rentals
Whether it is Uber and Lyft or AirBNB, local government is ground zero in the battle to keep up with "disruptive technologies." For many of these businesses they have exploited new trends and technologies raising questions about how they align with existing law.
In the case of short-term rentals, popularized by AirBNB, the Commonwealth of Virginia has struggled to arrive at the correct way to level the playing field and provide Virginia's local governments with appropriate tools to address quality of life impacts.
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Narrowing the Options For Amazon
The competition to attract NSF was heated, and the win was a home-run for the City and its taxpayers.
Almost 240 jurisdictions around North America responded to this solicitation.
While the Commonwealth ultimately submitted a response on behalf of numerous jurisdictions, the City worked with Fairfax, Arlington and Loudoun counties to respond to this solicitation.
The Commonwealth's response including sites in Potomac Yard (partnered with Crystal City) and the Eisenhower Avenue area.
Last month Amazon narrowed down the areas under consideration to 20 finalists. Included in that list were three locations in our region: Washington, DC, Montgomery County, Maryland and our Northern Virginia response.
Amazon also announced their final decisions will be made in 2018.
The City will work to win, but that's not the point of this newsletter update.
The solicitation validates some of the policy we have made in our community in recent years, and should prompt us to redouble our efforts in other policy areas.
To begin, Amazon wants to be in a Metropolitan area. They know that their workforce of the future will be drawn to urban communities.
 They want connectivity. The solicitation specifically cites: "sidewalks, bike lanes, trams, metro, bus, light rail, train." The City's efforts to invest in new transit alternatives, enhanced pedestrian infrastructure and transit-oriented communities are not just efforts to improve the quality of life of our existing residents, but significant economic development efforts. These are valuable things to people and businesses, big and small.
They want sustainability. Amazon is the largest purchaser of renewable power in the nation and they are looking for a new headquarters that gives them the opportunity to expand their leadership in this important area. Their existing headquarters uses "district energy" that recycles heat from data centers to warm nearby offices. Three of the City's recently adopted small area plans (
Eisenhower West,
North Potomac Yard and
Old Town North) call for district energy as a sustainability effort in planned redevelopment. We are preparing to update our green building standards to ensure sustainability is a critical component in future private development.
They want a community with superior information connectivity. They seek details on fiber and communication infrastructure.
They want an educated workforce. They are looking for areas with strong institutes of higher education.
They want an area where their employees will want to live. They cite the need for a diverse community with a variety of housing types and recreation opportunities.
Amazon's new headquarters would be a valuable addition to Alexandria. If it ends up in our region, but not in Alexandria, that would be a big win for Alexandria as well.
Yet, whether we win or lose this solicitation, the process should be instructive. The innovative companies of this decade and beyond will all seek a similar model for their future investment.
Growing sustainably while preserving our neighborhoods will require the City to be responsive to this roadmap for the future.
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Host a Town Hall in Your Living Room!
My regular series of Town Hall Meetings continue!
You supply the living room and a bunch of your friends and neighbors. I will supply a member of the Alexandria City Council (me) with the answers to any of your questions about our City.
Just drop us a line and we'll get a Town Hall on the calendar! Thanks for the interest!
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Upcoming Issues
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The City Manager will present his proposed budgets on Tuesday, February 20th, and the City Council will adopt the budget on Thursday, May 3rd.
From 2002 until 2009, the City was enjoying the run-up in the residential real estate market. Our General Fund budget increased by an average of 6.5% per year. The work force in City Government grew from 2,229 Full Time Equivalents (FTE) to 2,660 FTEs during that period.
In Fiscal Year 2010, the bottom fell out as the Great Recession took hold. The City adopted its first negative budget in at least 40 years, reducing spending from Fiscal Year 2009 to 2010 by over 2%. From 2010 to 2017, the General Fund budget increased by an average of 2.9% per year.
Today, the City workforce is at 2,564 FTEs, 4% lower than 2009.
The most important decision the City Council makes each year is the
adoption of the annual operating budget and capital improvement program. The operating budget generally funds the ongoing costs of government (primarily personnel), while the capital budget funds one-time expenditures that provide the community with an asset (new schools, new roads, new playing fields, transit buses, etc).
It has always been my view that the most important part of the budget process is the adoption of our annual budget guidance for the City Manager. In the fall, the City Council adopts a resolution which provides direction to the City Manager as how to prepare that budget.
The guidance typically provides direction on tax policy, expenditure priorities, debt policy, and other emergent issues. To prepare the Council to provide this direction, a retreat is scheduled.
In early November, the Council had our annual retreat and
received the first glimpse into next year's financial picture
. This is the beginning of the Council's process to adopt the Fiscal Year 2018 (July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019) Operating Budget and the Fiscal Year 2019 - Fiscal Year 2029 Capital Improvement Program.
The current projections are that next year's revenues will grow at a rate of 1.3% overall. If that estimate holds, that would provide the City government with about $9.2 million of new revenue.
The estimates also include $4.9 million for additional City government costs (mostly salary increases and benefit expenses), $7.7 million of cash capital and debt service for our capital budget, and $4.8 million for transit services (mostly Metro).
All together, that creates an estimated shortfall near $28 million, before we start the process.
By the time the City Manager presents his budget, that gap must be addressed by tax increases, expenditure reductions, or some combination of the two. The Council begins to set that direction with the adoption of its budget guidance.
In the budget guidance adopted by the Council for this year, I successfully included language requesting that the City Manager not include an increase in the real estate tax rate in his proposed budget.
The Council will host a budget public hearing on Monday March 12th at 4:00 PM at City Hall.
I hope to see you there.
The most important occurrence at the first meeting was the release of Dominion Virginia Power's
proposed routes. Each of these routes have negative impacts for our community.
As this process concluded, Dominion believed that the urgency behind the proposed transmission line had subsided. The process was then delayed for some time to allow them to analyze their studies.
Ultimately, the decision about the necessity of this transmission line and its routing will be made by the State Corporation Commission. However, the City and its residents will have some opportunity to help shape that decision.
The City continues to have significant concerns about this proposal and the potential impacts on Alexandria.
The City reconvened the community group and a series of meetings were again held.
The Council adopted a resolution opposing any above ground routing, and identifying the "least objectionable" routes as ones that either:
- Used the existing CSX railroad right of way
- Used waterways, both Four Mile Run and the Potomac River
- Used the George Washington Parkway
Dominion then formally notified the City that they will finally file with the State Corporation Commission. That filing was to include two routes, the route utilizing the CSX railroad right of way, and an alternate scenario where Dominion "reconductors" an existing route primarily outside of the City.
Yet that did not happen.
In November, Dominion returned to the City with another update. Given the extensive costs of utilizing the CSX railroad right of way, Dominion would now like the City to consider whether we could support their utilization of a route along or near Potomac Avenue. In exchange for this change, Dominion indicated a willingness to increase the compensation they will provide to the City from $15 million to $40 million.
Use of Potomac Avenue would potentially have a several adverse impacts to the City that would need to be considered carefully.
To consider the potential trade-offs associated with such a change we are again convened the community group.
Additional meetings will be scheduled shortly.
A Plan For the Future of Policing
In many jurisdictions around the nation, it is a challenging time for the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. It is incumbent upon Alexandria to continue to lead the way in this area.
We have a highly skilled police force that serves our community well every day.
Our officers participate in training aimed at de-escalation of volatile situations. We outfit our police officers with non-lethal force options to assist in the de-escalation of these incidents.
 The goal of this review was to identify possible areas of biased policing. While the study authors provide significant detail as to the challenges of bench-marking this type of data, the result of the study should prompt further analysis and conversation.
With the report and the
release of the actual raw data, our Police Department has gone beyond what most departments not under consent decrees have chosen to do.
Yet the efforts continue as we work to provide a level of transparency that increases public confidence in the great work done by the men and women who serve our community every day.
These changes include expanded data collection, expanded public reporting, and continuation of resident oversight for use of force data and complaint review.
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$2 billion of investment over the next decade. Yet the constraints of the Council's guidance and paltry projected revenue growth left over $500 million of recommended, but unfunded, capital investments.
adopted resolution included language that I drafted requesting that our Clerk begin producing an annual report detailing the Council's use of executive session during the previous year. Executive session is a closed meeting of Council, neither televised nor witnessed by any members of the general public, for specific purposes.