Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 0m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/3883
Official Board of Supervisors page (Fairfax County): https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/boardofsupervisors/

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-29. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:10] - Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. And welcome to our board meeting of August 26th, 2025. And we have a packed house of excited student athletes, which is always one of our more fun board meetings.

[00:00:25] But before we recognize them, we are gonna have to do a few things. One, I'm gonna ask my colleagues if there's anyone they would like to keep in our thoughts and prayers. After that, for those who are able, we will rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and then we'll move into the presentations of recognizing our student-athletes.

[00:00:43] And I do want to announce a few folks who, sadly, we need to keep in our prayers this morning. First is Jane Edmondson. Jane is a longtime county employee in the Drainsville District. She's been experiencing some very serious health issues.

[00:01:01] She had open-heart surgery followed by a seizure and has been hospitalized now for many weeks. It's a very serious condition. I've been in contact with Supervisor John Faust. Many of us know Jane from all her years working for the Board of Supervisors and certainly working for Supervisor John Faust.

[00:01:21] We know her husband, Jim, and the work that he does in affordable housing and their entire family, and I've been in contact with their daughter. She is currently at ANOVA getting treatment, but again is facing some very serious health challenges.

[00:01:37] So if we can keep Jane and the Edmondson family in our thoughts and prayers, this sits close to us as a board of supervisors when one of our longtime staff, chiefs of staff in the Dranesville district is facing such health challenges. Secondly, I need to sadly inform the board of the passing of Rex Remington Stone.

[00:01:57] He passed away on August 10th following complications from COVID, and I think this is kind of an eye-opener to all of us with the challenges that we faced with COVID. He was a graduate of both Clifton Elementary and Robinson Secondary. Rex was a Fairfax County employee for 12 years, with the majority of that time spent at the archives within the Department of Information Technology.

[00:02:20] His supervisor described him as the go-to tech expert in the office for their computer system and a wonderful human being. Rex passed away way too early. He was a relatively young man. And if we could keep Rex, our Department of Information Technology, and his family in our thoughts and prayers, it would be appreciated.

[00:02:43] And then finally, I'm going to mention one that I know at least one or two of my colleagues is going to want to comment on as well. And that, of course, is the passing of Phil Rosenthal. It's with sadness that we learned the passing of Phil Rosenthal on August 16th. Phil served as our county, served our county as a trustee on the Fairfax County Library Board of Trustees, as well as a member of the Community Action Advisory Board.

[00:03:08] His commitment to our county did not end there. I know many of us would regularly see Phil out at community events all over the county. And he was a regular at our fire and rescue department coat drives and some of the things that he supported and his company supported for our young people and our school children.

[00:03:28] And his sudden loss was a real tragedy, not just for the library board, but for so many people in our community and all the board's authorities and commissions that Phil served on. It wasn't long ago I saw him. I think many of us would see him out and about, and he just seemed as energetic as ever.

[00:03:48] And so this was a real sudden loss, and if we could keep Phil Rosenthal and his family in our thoughts and prayers. And he was Supervisor Herity's appointee and I know close friend, and at this time I'd recognize Supervisor Herity. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, for recognizing the sudden loss of Phil Rosenthal.

[00:04:09] At 82 years old, or young, I should say, because he lived very young. He'd been in the D.C. area for over 50 years, where he grew his local business, Nationwide Credit Corp., from a two-person operation into one of the region's most respected and successful accounts receivable firms.

[00:04:27] NCC wasn't just a national leader and a Fairfax-based company, but a county vendor. And I want to thank staff, including Jay Doshi and former tax administrator Kevin Greenleaf, as well as Supervisor Luss for attending the services last week. He was a lifelong advocate for ethical practices in the financial industry, serving as the president of the ACA International from 1999 to 2000.

[00:04:53] As you mentioned, he believes strongly in giving back to the community. Over 30 years of service to Fairfax County as the Springfield District appointee to a number of boards, including the Heath Onthank Memorial Award Selection Committee since 1992. Community Action Advisory Board, as the chairman mentioned, since 2001, the Library Board since 2018. He was named Springfield District Lord Fairfax in 2005. He was active in so many other charities it's hard to, good housing is one that comes, Good Shepherd Housing is one that comes to mind as he helped to

[00:05:30] provide housing to those at risk of being unhoused, obviously the fire department and so much else. Above all else he was proud of his family, regularly He shared stories about his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. He was not just a leader in the community, but he was a good friend.

[00:05:47] I could share many memories about Phil, but three to come to mind that kind of tell you a little bit more about him. His purchase of a home for two homeless individuals that he literally read about in the Washington Post and went out and housed them. You know, on a lighter note, his invitation to me to FedEx Field to watch Virginia Tech WVU, not telling me I'd be fodder for all of his devout Mountaineer alumni buddies, not to mention the West Virginia moonshine, which I won't mention.

[00:06:20] And he was one of the two people that was able to navigate ANOVA's security to come visit me when I was in the hospital with my heart issues this spring. So to take the time to do that, I told you, he was always genuine, always warm, and always kind, and that's really Phil Rosenthal.

[00:06:40] He's a true fan of community service. He's going to be deeply advanced. I ask that we keep Phil and his family in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you, Supervisor Herity. Others who would like to be recognized, Supervisor Stork. And we'll work our way across. Just to add to the comments about Phil Rosenthal, you could not go to a backpack or coat drive or anything else, that he was not there.

[00:07:01] And it wasn't just that he was there. The energy, the enthusiasm, really the joy that he always brought and connected with all of us was truly a life well lived and one that we particularly could admire and know that can aspire to try to do the same thing.

[00:07:17] So I just wanted to add my voice to that. And being a former chair of the board of Good Shepherd Housing, his work with Good Shepherd Housing was a huge part of the success of that organization as well. So thank you. supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, that's fine. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to acknowledge and remember Reston resident Jose Nolasco de Cunha, who sadly passed away at age 75 in July.

[00:07:44] He was born in Pelotas, Brazil. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering there. And in 1985, he moved to the U.S. with his wife and young daughters, becoming a proud, naturalized American citizen. They lived in Charlottesville for 30 years. And his three daughters, graduated there from the University of Virginia. But during Jose's 40-year career, he served as vice president of Northup Grumman and an international managing director of the Sperry Marine Division. So that took him across the globe, managing business units in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and South America. But he was also active in the community, including as a

[00:08:22] regular attendee at meetings on Reston Town Center North, the Reston Comprehensive Plan Update, and other community projects. More recently, he served as vice president on his condo board, the Paramount, in Reston. Jose survived by his devoted wife of 50 years, his three daughters, and his seven adored grandchildren.

[00:08:41] He'll be deeply missed, and my thoughts are with his family. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Alcorn. Others who would like to be recognized? Supervisor Lusk. I'll go back quickly to Phil Rosenthal and just extend my condolences to his family and acknowledge the work that he did specifically in both Mount Vernon and Franconia districts, specifically with the backpack drive, but also with the Christmas efforts that we had where we would provide presents to kids.

[00:09:11] And I could always see him helping the young kids pick out their specific items and always a huge smile on his face when he did that and just appreciated his energy. And I was glad to be able to attend his funeral service, learned a few more things about him. His son mentioned, which I wasn't aware of, that whenever he saw a homeless person, he would always give them something. He would always gift them something because he felt that, you know, that situation was one that warrants it. And then the point on

[00:09:45] Good Shepherd Housing, just thinking about multiple homes he helped provide to Good Shepherd to provide to those who are homeless, says something about the measure of the man. And I think, you know we don't always know what people do and their contributions and I just appreciate that there are those who have a heart a heart for service and give to others because that is what we're supposed to do that is why we're on this planet to care for others and I appreciate the example in which he

[00:10:19] exhibited and then second mr. chairman I'd like to acknowledge and so sorry I have to share this the passing of a Springfield resident in the Frank County District Jay Kim who was killed by a vehicle while crossing the road within a marked crosswalk the morning of August 15th I hope that this is a reminder for all of us you know just to be attentive as we're you know driving looking out for pedestrians bikers and particularly those in in crosswalks and I extend my condolences to his family and the broader community in Daventry Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[00:10:55] Thank you very much, Supervisor Lusk. And if no one else would like to be recognized, for those who are able, if you could rise, if all could rise, then we are going to face the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance. Actually, yeah, actually, we'll start with a moment of silence to be followed by the pledge.

[00:11:22] Please face the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:11:53] Okay, and this morning, we are going to be recognizing and honoring Fairfax County Public Schools' 25 spring sports teams and individual champions. And I am going to ask someone to come up and speak on behalf of everyone in a moment.

[00:12:14] We're going to call the individual teams. But before we do that, this has become a special tradition in the auditorium. And before anyone who is here leaves, we want to capture this moment with one of the largest Fairfax County selfies in Fairfax County's history.

[00:12:32] So in order to do that, I'm going to ask the board to go down in front of us, and we are going to face this direction. And if everyone in the auditorium could rise, we're going to take a picture, a group shot of everyone who is here, and then we will resume the individual presentations.

[00:12:52] And I'm going to look to Tony Castrilli to make sure that we do this right with our photographer. But if the board could come on down to the front.

[00:13:01] Go ahead and move forward.

[00:14:43] And we did that photo so that if after your presentation you need to leave, you can leave. You're welcome to stay for the entire presentation. But as the father of a high school and middle school student, I know it's killing all of you to be away from class. So if you need to leave after that presentation, I'll leave it up to the folks who are with you to decide that.

[00:15:03] But before we run down the list of awardees, we are pleased to have with us Dr. Nardis King, who is the Chief Equity Officer for Fairfax County Public Schools. And no stranger to all of us on the board, we want to first welcome you to share a few thoughts.

[00:15:20] And to also County Exec Ryan Hill, good morning. Good morning to everyone. It's a true pleasure to join you as we celebrate the incredible accomplishments of our FCPS students. To all of our spring champions, congratulations.

[00:15:38] Your dedication, discipline, and heart have brought great pride not just to your schools, but to the entire Fairfax County community. You've achieved excellence in competition, but perhaps even more importantly, you've grown as leaders and teammates. Sports are a lot of fun, but they also teach really valuable lessons like teamwork, collaboration, and communication, the things I learned on the court and in the field and still carry with me today.

[00:16:05] These are the types of well-rounded opportunities that strong public schools provide. They are not only possible with continued investment and support. Athletics, like so many of our extracurricular programs, are vital to helping us achieve goal two of our strategic plan, ensuring that every student feels safe, supported, included, and empowered.

[00:16:27] We measure this not only just by what happens in the classroom, but also through participation in extracurricular, co-curricular, and leadership activities, exactly like the ones we celebrate today. To our coaches and principals, thank you for being mentors and role models.

[00:16:43] And to our families, your support is a big part of their success, and we're grateful for you to share it with you today. On behalf of our superintendent, Dr. Michelle Reed, I am incredibly proud of each and every one of you, and today we applaud you not just for your wins, but for the values you embody.

[00:17:01] We'd like to thank the Board of Supervisors for recognizing our students as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. King. Thank you very much, Dr. King, and thank you for your outstanding work with FCPS as well.

[00:17:17] We appreciate you and appreciate that you took the time to come out this morning. And I am going to read those who are being recognized this morning, and I'm going to call them individually. And we're going to start with the Herndon High School boys soccer team. And if the Herndon High School boys soccer team could come on down to the podium, including our coach Jordan Steffi, if you all could come on down.

[00:17:42] After we do our presentation with Herndon, we are going to do Langley High School Boys Tennis Team, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Girls Tennis Team, the West Potomac High School Boys Lacrosse Team, South County High School Girls Outdoor Track and Field Team, and the Robinson Secondary School Rifle Team, in that order, so that you'll know the order as we go through the presentation.

[00:18:09] And at this time, I would recognize Supervisor Beerman for a resolution. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's always great to start off with the Drainsville District. I want to congratulate the Herndon Boys soccer team, and I'm going to read the resolution.

[00:18:26] Whereas the Herndon High School boys soccer team won the 2025 Virginia Class 6 state championship with a 3-0 victory over the Wakefield Warriors at Glen Allen High School, and whereas this historic victory marks Herndon boys first soccer state title since 1986 the year I was born bringing pride and celebration to the Herndon community and Fairfax County public schools especially because you beat an Arlington team and whereas under the leadership of head coach Jordan Steffi in just his second year the Hornets showed resilience discipline and excellence

[00:19:00] bouncing back from a 4-4 start to finish the season with a commanding 12-1-1 record in their final 14 games, and whereas standout performances by senior Otu Bisong, senior Bilal Hohawa, and junior Manny McClanyan, I messed up every one of those names, but I tried, helped propel the Hornets to victory with three second-half goals, sealing their championship win, and whereas the team overcame adversity, rebuilt after key player losses, and demonstrated teamwork and perseverance, establishing a strong culture and setting a new standard for Herndon soccer.

[00:19:35] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all residents, does hereby congratulate the Herndon High School boys soccer team on its outstanding victory in the 2025 Virginia Class 6 state championship. And that motion is multiply seconded.

[00:19:53] The motion has been multiply seconded. Discussion on the motion, Supervisor Beerman. I mean, having me comment on soccer is a little bit like having Ted Lasso talk about it, especially when I'm sitting next to NYU's third leading scorer right here.

[00:20:15] But obviously an amazing season coming back from starting 4-4 and then coming back, winning all those games, going all the way and winning the first championship in 39 years. Again, that's 1986, the year I was born. So now you all know I'm 39 years old. But just a wonderful story and great job.

[00:20:34] so congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you, Supervisor Beerman. 39 is sounding good to the rest of us. Supervisor Palcic. I just want to add very briefly, and you did a great job, Jimmy, but to me, Hernan, when I was in high school, Marco Echeverry, I don't know if he still lives there, but the number one player for DC United, their first home games here, And so I'm sure if he's still around, he's very proud of you guys.

[00:21:10] Herndon was his home here in D.C., and he helped D.C. United have a name in MLS soccer. So congratulations, felicidades, and see you next year. So it's been almost 10 years since my son graduated from Herndon High School.

[00:21:29] Go Hornets. And he didn't do soccer. He did baseball. But I just want to basically let everybody know how far you guys have come as a program and what you guys have accomplished.

[00:21:45] I couldn't be more proud of you guys. This is incredible, fantastic. You did it. So congratulations. Thank you very much. You have certainly made Fairfax County proud. And as Supervisor Alcorn said, have come a long way.

[00:22:02] I think what is most remarkable is we have head coach Jordan Steffi, who's just in his second year, I'm told. So a lot more, hopefully, to come in the future for Fabulous Herndon High School. And with that, let us first vote on the motion, and then we'll recognize Coach for a few words.

[00:22:19] All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Coach, welcome. Yeah, I just want to thank you, County of Fairfax, Board of Supervisors, for inviting us here.

[00:22:35] Stop laughing. Couldn't ask for a better group of guys. really stuck through you know like you said the slow start four and four kind of a you know everybody told us it was a rebuild year but you know I guess we kind of rebuilt it so I appreciate the county of Fairfax our amazing DSAs and ADSAs and that entire team who support us throughout the entire season and honestly the entire you know year setting all this stuff up for us as well we just couldn't do it without all the support so thank you thank you very much coach thank you

[00:23:11] very much and congratulations again. And I think we're ready for a photo. If you all could come forward and face the audience, Supervisor Bierman and Alcorn will join me. And if you would like to take a photo, anyone who's here would like to take a photo can come down closer to take a photo. And

[00:23:26] anyone else who is here from Herndon is welcome to join us for the photo. And next up, we have the

[00:24:48] Langley High School boys tennis team. If you could come on down and anyone who's here with you is welcome to join you. And while you are making your way down, I am once again going to recognize Supervisor Bierman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to read the resolution. Whereas the Langley High School boys tennis team demonstrated outstanding determination, athleticism, and teamwork in capturing the Virginia Class 6 boys team tennis championship. And whereas in a grueling seven-hour final, that's a long final, against Madison High School, the Saxons emerged

[00:25:27] victorious with a dramatic 5-4 win, marking their third consecutive state title and solidifying their legacy as one of the top tennis programs in the Commonwealth. Obviously, in the Commonwealth, they won the state title. And whereas senior Nikola Galov played a pivotal role in the team's success, winning crucial singles match in three sets to tie the score and propel Langley into the decisive doubles round. And whereas Aiden Bay and William Moe clinched the final point with a thrilling seven to five six to four doubles victory culminating in a celebratory moment that reflected the spirit and unity of the team and whereas head coach jack porter and a coach

[00:26:07] an assistant coach son tran provided outstanding leadership and guidance throughout the season fostering a culture of discipline resilience and excellence now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county board of supervisors on behalf of all residents does hereby congratulate the langley high school boys tennis team for its outstanding performance and historic three-peat as class six state state champions and the chair will second that motion uh discussion on the motion supervisor beerman i can tell that our student athletes are in class uh which is i don't know how you can tell that excellent uh uh but obviously yet another amazing season a seven

[00:26:46] hour match that i mean all day uh winning it with the final doubles game i mean that's just a great story, great accomplishment, and many congratulations on a third consecutive state title. Thank you, Supervisor Beerman. And let me also congratulate you and the team members who are not here. While they may not be here, we are celebrating their efforts and sending great appreciation to them for making Fairfax County proud, as well as all the parents, staff, coaches, DSAs, all the folks that make these things happen. And so congratulations. We're really

[00:27:21] We're proud of you, and please pass along that along to the players that were mentioned and the entire team. With that, I think we're ready for a vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries, and Coach Porter is here with us.

[00:27:38] Welcome. The floor is yours. Well, thank you. As you can see, we do have serious student athletes attending class this morning. Nicola is off to Swarthmore College, and he's going to play tennis for them.

[00:27:54] And as you say, he was pivotal. One interesting fact about this year's championship, we lost twice to Madison prior to beating them in the state finals. So it was particularly exciting and rewarding.

[00:28:15] And I thank the board for recognizing our program and our team. It's a joy to coach these young men. Thank you. It's always great we have bragging rights against Walter Alcorn, so thank you. Thank you for the good work. Thank you.

[00:28:30] Thank you very much, Supervisor Beerman. Thank you, Coach Porter, and congratulations. I know it takes a good coach to make things like this happen, and we're really grateful for you and for the work you do with these young people. With that, I think we're ready for a photo, and Supervisor Bierman will join me.

[00:28:49] If you gentlemen could come forward and face the camera.

[00:29:06] And we're going to stick with tennis.

[00:29:49] Next up is a resolution for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology girls tennis team. If you are here, come on down, as well as anyone who is here with you. I believe we have assistant coach Dan Perilla here.

[00:30:04] If you could come on down as well, and at this time I'd recognize Supervisor Jimenez for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And before I read this resolution, as the team comes down, I've got to tell you, this is exciting. This is all about perseverance. This tennis team made the championships five times in a row coming up as a runner-up.

[00:30:24] And on their sixth try, they won. So that's a great story. That's a story of dedication. It's about training. I'm sure all of us know the U.S. Open is going on. So tennis is on our minds right now. So just an excellent job from the coaching staff and the dedication of the tennis team to persevere and continue trying and finally making that appearance and winning the championship.

[00:30:47] So, Mr. Chairman, whereas the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology girls team achieved a milestone victory by winning the Virginia Class 6 Girls Team Tennis Championship, the first team title in the program's history.

[00:31:03] And whereas under the leadership of Coach Brandon Ward, who previously guided the team to five runner-up finishes, the Colonials displayed determination and excellence in securing a 5-2 win over Oakton High School. And whereas freshman Avery Huang delivered a breakout performance winning the top singles match in the team final and later capturing both the individual singles and double state titles, a rare and impressive accomplishment from a freshman.

[00:31:31] And whereas Huang's doubles partners, Karis Kim, security commanding 6-1, 6-3 win in the championship, further showcasing the team's dominance and cohesion. And whereas the team's success represents years of hard work and reflects the strength of Fairfax County's youth athletics and commitment to excellence, now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on behalf of all residents, does hereby congratulate the Thomas Jefferson High School girls team for their historic Classic State Championship victory.

[00:32:03] And the chair will second that motion along with Supervisor Paucik. Any further discussion on the motion? Supervisor Jimenez. Again, just wanted to just congratulate everyone. When you come up almost there five times in a row, it can be hard to kind of overcome that and kind of have that mental break where you know that you can win and that you know that you're there for a reason.

[00:32:22] You've been there five times already. So seeing you all come through on the sixth try and become champions, I just want to say congratulations. It's a great accomplishment, and looking forward to future accomplishments. Also, obviously, you have a young team, and you'll have many, many years to continue this excellence streak.

[00:32:38] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Palchuk. Well, first of all, huge congratulations. Forty years that TJ's been around this year. And so that's how long we've gone without this award, and you've brought it home. As a graduate of 2001, we came here for the sports bumper sticker, and it's always good to see it come true.

[00:33:01] So congrats to all of you. We're very proud of you, and we're looking forward to seeing you back here, Coach, with your team next year. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Palchuk. And let me also congratulate you. I think what you said is so true. We're expecting this to be an annual event now.

[00:33:18] the board for TJ, and we're proud of all of you. And as I've said before, so many people that make this happen, including your parents and other people who support you, really appreciate this being a team effort, literally, even though tennis isn't always thought of as a team sport. It absolutely is a team sport. So congratulations to all of you. And with that, I think we're first, let us vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

[00:33:47] That motion carries, and as I mentioned, we have assistant coach Dan Perilla, who is here with us. Welcome, sir. The floor is yours. Thank you very much. It's the coach's job to inspire their players, but this is one team that really has chosen to inspire their coaches.

[00:34:03] Their effort, their heart, their commitment to the team, their commitment to their studies. Yes, even telling them to put the laptop away so that we can actually focus on the next play, but they did an absolutely fantastic job. You don't stop smiling for weeks when you see a team perform the way they do. They have been an inspiration to us all, and it has been my absolute privilege to be their coach this year.

[00:34:22] Thank you very much, Coach. Well done. This time, I think we're ready for a photo. If you all could come forward, and Supervisor Jimenez will join me.

[00:35:56] And next up, we will recognize the West Potomac High School boys lacrosse team. If you all could come on down. I know Coach John Stamos is here. I also understand, is our Franconia school board member here?

[00:36:17] I think I saw. Okay. Well, at this time, let me recognize Supervisor Stork. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

[00:36:35] It is a great pleasure to welcome you all here and to celebrate, as I know you all have done, and as you should, this amazing, really, victory for West Potomac High School, a high school that had kind of double victories in cross-country and football more than three decades ago.

[00:36:56] So this is truly an achievement that the whole community embraced. But for those of us who have been following lacrosse in our area, no real surprise. The lacrosse program is, I think, one of the strongest in the county and definitely one that's clearly been building to this really outcome.

[00:37:14] So it is a pleasure and honor to welcome you all here. Whereas the West Potomac High School boys lacrosse team made history by winning the Virginia Class 6 state championship with a dramatic 9-8 victory over Cosby High School, Whereas this historic win marks the first ever state championship for the West Potomac Boys Lacrosse Program and the first state title for West Potomac High School in any sport since 1990.

[00:37:40] Whereas the Wolverines, led by head coach John Stamos, completed a 17-6 season defeating the defending champions, Robinson, in the regional final and reaching the state semifinal for the first time in school history. Whereas in the final seconds of a tied championship game, junior attacker Sean Kowalski scored the game-winning goal as time expired, securing a place in West Potomac history and igniting a celebration that will be remembered by players, coaches, students, and the community for years to come.

[00:38:14] And whereas this team exemplified perseverance, teamwork, and school pride, inspiring their community and securing their place as a forever team with unforgettable memories, now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all Fairfax County residents, does hereby congratulate the West Potomac High School boys lacrosse team for their remarkable achievement in winning the Virginia Class 6 state championship.

[00:38:40] I'm happy to second that motion, along with Supervisor Herity, Supervisor Lusk. Discussion on the motion, Supervisor Storch. I think the resolution really says it all. This is a long, long time coming, and for those of us who have been on the school board and the board of supervisors now, it really has been a long wait to see what the community's athletes truly do on a day-to-day basis, but especially the lacrosse program, as we've been seeing it for years.

[00:39:06] So I know there's more to come, but this was one of those that you've got to get the first one to be able to talk about the second one. And to do that dramatic, really, victory, that dramatic win at the last second or two is especially, I guess, notable and one that maybe will inspire the next group of folks to meet that same level of achievement.

[00:39:25] So, again, my deep thanks to all of you. Our community's deep thanks to all of you. Thank you, Supervisor Stork. And let me also add my congratulations. I followed this closely. I have a son who plays lacrosse, and to see it as an upcoming sport, just the excitement around the sport itself.

[00:39:44] And as you mentioned, certainly in the South County area, a lot of powerhouse youth teams and, you know, bridges to high school that make this happen. And so a lot of folks here to congratulate. I know having a niece and nephew who are student athletes at West Potomac, how big a deal this was for the school and for the Wolverines.

[00:40:03] and just the spirit that it brought into the building was tremendous. I heard about the send-off that happened for you when you all went to play the tournament. I was sad to not be there to personally witness it, but I saw a video of the send-off, and the excitement was just electric.

[00:40:21] And this is a long time coming, and we certainly are proud. Fairfax County is proud of what you have achieved, But in particular, the West Potomac community is proud of each and every one of you for your successes on the field and off of the field.

[00:40:38] And I know we're going to hear from the coach. And I know there were so many people involved in making this happen from parents and the DSA and the coaching staff and the boosters and everybody that played a role here. A real big team effort and a real big win for the West Potomac Wolverines.

[00:40:56] So congratulations. With that, I think we're ready for a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries, and we have Coach John Stamos, who's here with us. Welcome. The floor is yours. All right.

[00:41:13] Thanks so much. Thanks, Board Supervisors, for having us up here. It's really special for myself and the team to be recognized like that. It's awesome. And I'd just like to add a little bit on to the thanks to the support we get, you know, across the board from everybody.

[00:41:31] You know, Board of Supervisors, we've got great fields around our area, rectangular fields that we need for the youth to get introduced to these sports. And that's, you know, a lot is on your thanks to you all for that kind of stuff and making our community, you know, around here such a great place to have kids grow up.

[00:41:50] Our Fairfax County school system, you know, I want to thank them for allowing lacrosse to be a sport, a varsity sport at us, and supporting. You know, it is the fastest game on two feet, and it's the oldest game played in North America. And these guys think it's a lot of fun, as I do, and appreciate the school system letting us, you know, continue to play and support us like they do.

[00:42:14] Our West Potomac staff, principal stats in the DSA, Matt McDonald. You know, like you mentioned, that send-off, they obviously are supporting all the teams throughout. We've got a great school there. But the send-off, and in short notice, you know, you don't know you're going to make the championship until you win the semi.

[00:42:32] And in short notice, put together a weekend where we had to, you know, got a really nice bus ride, a really special weekend all around, in addition, obviously, to the game that they, you know, were able to put together for us with support from other folks as well. You know, like you mentioned, our parents.

[00:42:49] We've got an unbelievable parent group supporting us. Amy Bruce is kind of the lead of it. But all the parents, you know, it's a high school sport. I like to have the kids do most of this stuff. You know, this is high school. But obviously it takes, you know, a lot of work.

[00:43:07] And our parents' support group was just phenomenal. The boosters, getting the kids to places. We have team meals all the time. The games are run. We have the announcers. All that stuff is done by the parents. It's just really fun. And then most important, and really important is all the coaches.

[00:43:25] Start with our Fort Hunt Youth Athletic Association coaches. That's where the majority of these guys got introduced to the sport. They're all volunteers. They do a great job of introducing this great sport to kids. So when they get up to the high school, we can polish that and, you know, take it to the level that these guys are able to.

[00:43:44] Our assistant coaches, Coach Byron is here. He's a JV coach. Coach Suleman-Atwater couldn't be here. He's our head JV coachman for a number of years, feeder program. He's a West Potomac graduate. Our defensive coordinator, Coach John Falvey, is a West Potomac graduate.

[00:44:04] Our offensive coordinator, Coach Peter Stamos, is a West Potomac graduate. So it's just great to see folks come back and, you know, support the team like that. You talked about on the field stuff.

[00:44:20] Our guys are really special all around. I mean, I'm going to go a little bit along, but these guys are just special to me. It's just been phenomenal to be with them. But 30 of them, 14 of them finished last year with above a 3.5. Of those 14, five of them finished with above a 4.0.

[00:44:39] Our graduates can't be here. We had 11 of them. They're not here because they're at Nova Community College. They're at VCU. They're at JMU. Three of them are at UVA. They're at Boston College. They're at Ohio State University. They're at, it pains me to say that I grew up in Ann Arbor.

[00:45:00] They're at South Carolina. One of them's at Jacksonville University, going to play D1 starting this year. And one of them's in El Paso, Texas, playing professional hockey for the North American Hockey League with the El Paso Rhinos. So they're just phenomenal guys.

[00:45:18] These guys, like you said, on the field, team effort. In that championship game, nine goals scored and seven different goal scores out of our offense. That's the kind of teamwork you want to see in lacrosse and held by our defense, which just Cosby put on a big run towards the end there, and our defense held strong like they did the entire year.

[00:45:41] And like they say, you know, the offense wins games, but the defense wins championships, and they did. Thanks so much. Appreciate it again, and thank you for taking a little bit of extra time for me there. Appreciate it. Thank you very much, Coach, and we can tell your excitement. So thank you for everything that you do and for your success.

[00:46:00] We recognize you as well. With that, I think we're ready for a photo, and if you gentlemen and ladies could come forward and face the audience, and Supervisor Stork will join me.

[00:46:59] And I am told South County is not here.

[00:47:53] Is there anyone here from South County? Oh, we do have folks here from South County. This is for the, well, you all are later individual. I'm actually looking for the South County High School Girls Outdoor Track and Field Team. Anyone here from the Girls Track and Field Team?

[00:48:12] All right. So we are going to make sure that what I'm going to do is go ahead and ask Supervisor Stork to read the resolution so we can approve it. And we'll make sure that it gets delivered and put in the proper hands. Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[00:48:28] And this has become a tradition for South County and particularly the Girls Track Team. They've been phenomenally successful over the last few years. and I think they were runner-up in indoor. Whereas the South County High School Girls Outdoor Track and Field Team delivered an outstanding performance at the 2025 Virginia High School League Class 6 State Championships, earning the team title with a remarkable 96 points.

[00:48:55] And whereas the victory maintains the Stallions' dominance in high school athletics after winning the Class 6 Indoor Track and Field Championship and rebounding from last year's second-place outdoor finish with determination. And whereas senior Maya Mason led with an outstanding all-round performance, scoring 34 points by winning the 100-meter dash in 11.66 seconds and placing second in the 200-meter dash, the 100-meter hurdles, and long jump, demonstrating leadership, versatility, and athletic excellence.

[00:49:27] Whereas teammate Julia Wallace contributed to the South County's success by winning the 400-meter dash in 55.23 seconds and helping the 4x100 relay team secure the state title in 46.41 seconds, highlighting the team's depth and cohesion.

[00:49:44] Whereas, under head coach Maurice Hutton, the team showed discipline, unity, and perseverance, culminating in a championship that reflects his exceptional coaching. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all Fairfax County residents, does hereby congratulate the South County High School Girls Outdoor Track and Field Team for winning the 2025 VHSL Class VI State Championship.

[00:50:08] And the chair will second that motion. Is there any discussion on the motion? Supervisor Stork? Well, I think the tradition has been said, and the tradition in South County is one of, frankly, winning state championships or being in close competition on a lot of different sports, but the women in particular have had a phenomenal success, And a lot of that has to do with the coaching.

[00:50:29] And obviously, you can see some major talent in the runners that they have as well. So thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Stork. And again, while they're not here, we congratulate the South County High School Girls Outdoor Track and Field Team and the coaches and folks who are not able to accept the certificate.

[00:50:47] We'll make sure it gets delivered to them. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries, and we're going to move on next to a resolution for the Robinson Secondary School Rifle Team. If you could come on down, if you're here from Robinson and the rifle team, and while you're doing that, including Coach James Miller, while you're doing that, I'm going to recognize Supervisor Walkinshaw for a motion.

[00:51:12] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Whereas the Robinson Secondary School Rifle Team demonstrated exceptional talent, composure, and teamwork and winning the Potomac High School Rifle League Regional Championship. And whereas in a thrilling finale that came down to the last shot, the Robinson Rams edged out the competition by just 1.4 points, finishing with a regional record-setting score of 2,423.8, narrowly defeating Lake Braddocks, impressive 2,422.4.

[00:51:49] And whereas standout performances were delivered by Samuel Nicholas, who scored 618.6 and secured second place overall in the individual rankings, along with Annika Cry with 608.2 and Sienna Wade with 604.6, each playing a crucial role in the Rams' victory, and whereas the Rams were further supported by strong efforts from all 10 team members who competed in the regional match, demonstrating commitment, discipline, and sportsmanship throughout the season,

[00:52:23] And whereas the team's victory earned them the Bob Hardy Cup, named in honor of longtime and beloved Robinson coach Bob Hardy. And this year's championship was achieved through the guidance and leadership of current head coach James Miller. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on behalf of all residents does hereby congratulate the Robinson Secondary School Rifle Team for their outstanding achievements in winning the 2025 Potomac High School Rifle League Regional Championship.

[00:52:54] Chair, we'll second that along with Supervisor Herity. Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just want to congratulate you all. An incredible accomplishment. Riflery is a truly co-ed sport. Supervisor Smith and I had the opportunity not too long ago to go out to the Isaac Walton League and see the air rifle range and see the incredible discipline and skill it takes to succeed in this sport.

[00:53:21] And you all have absolutely done that. And Robinson has a storied history. Robinson graduates from the riflery team have gone on to the Olympics, members of the U.S. shooting team, All-Americans. So an incredible legacy and tradition that you all have built there, and we look forward to your continued success.

[00:53:40] Congratulations. Thank you very much. Supervisor Walkinshaw, any further discussion? Supervisor Herity. Yeah, I'd just add my congratulations. I've been out to the air rifle range and helped inaugurate it. it's an incredible facility for all of our all of our schools but uh you've got a great legacy just keep it going thank you thank you supervisor harry and again congratulations uh to all of you and uh looking forward to uh what the coach has to say because uh this is uh something a lot of people aren't aware of is is our rifle program and how great it is across the county and and

[00:54:15] obviously particularly uh here at robinson uh so with that uh all those in favor of the motion please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries, and again, we have Coach James Miller with us. Welcome. The floor is yours. First, I'd like to thank the Board of Supervisors and the FCPS Board of Education for the recognition this year. Also, thank the Robinson Secondary School Administration for their support. This win is a testament to the effort that our team members put in throughout the year.

[00:54:51] Also, the efforts of the coaches and, you know, the time the parents put in to ensure that our team members get to practice, from practice, and actually practice is, you know, to be noticed.

[00:55:10] Also, I'd like to thank our shooters who could make it today. As we said, we're scholar-athletes, and unfortunately a number have to be in school to be those scholars. Thank you. Thank you very much, Coach. Congratulations to you, your coaching team, as well as all the students, those here and those not here.

[00:55:31] We're proud of all of you, so well done. With that, I think we're ready for a photo. And if you all could come forward and face the audience, and Supervisor Walkinshaw will join me.

[00:56:17] And finally this morning, our biggest groups, our track, field, and crew.

[00:56:39] And I'm going to read the names of the champions and understand not everyone could make it. But if you are here, when I read your name or your team, if you can come on down. Coaches, also in these categories, you're welcome to come down and join your champions as well.

[00:56:58] And we'd ask if any coaches are here, if they'd like to say a word or two, of course, we would welcome that as well. So I'm going to start by reading the track and field champions boys. And as I read your names, if you can come on down and Mr. Castrilli here, Tony, did you want them to come and face the audience around here?

[00:57:17] Okay, so when I call your name or your team name, come on down and face the audience and stand in front of the dais here the way we just did for the photos earlier. And at this time, I'll call Robinson Secondary Outdoor Track Boys 4x400 Meter Relay Team to be followed by West Springfield High School Outdoor Track Boys 4x800 Meter Relay Team, the South County Boys 2x4, and the South County Boys 1x4.

[00:57:52] And individually, we also have Harry Econiman, Robinson Secondary 400 Meter Dash, Michael Murray, West Springfield High Pole Vault, and Chris Wang, Chantilly High Discus Throw.

[00:58:08] If I called any of your names or any of your team names, if you could come on down. And while you're coming down, I'll mention that certificates have been distributed already, I'm told, by the Office of Public Affairs. And what we're going to do in each of these sections, I'm going to come down and the board will rise for a photo.

[00:58:28] Do we have coaches here as well? Okay. Um, if any of the coaches would like to say a few words, uh, you're welcome to do that. If you want to go to the podium, just introduce yourself and say a few words, any of the coaches who are, you're not a requirement, but if any of the coaches would like to say anything, you're welcome to go do that now.

[00:58:46] Yeah, please. Hi, good morning. Uh, Luke showed the coach at Robinson. So just real quick, just want to say, uh, two of our members are here, uh, two or not one Harry Oconomon, who is the individual 400 meter champion. He's at UVA.

[00:59:01] We'll be running track at UVA and then Mason Choate at the University of Missouri. But this was a good team we put together. I'll just say one thing that this is probably one of the most competitive districts on the Eastern Seaboard. So we always know who our competition is going to be at State, West Springfield, South County.

[00:59:18] A couple of these guys we run against quite a bit. So we're very, very familiar, but the boys bring the best out of each other. So thanks for your time today. Thank you very much. Any other coaches, please? Welcome. I'm Chris Pellegrini from West Brinkfield High School.

[00:59:38] And first, I just wanted to thank you all for having us. And it's a tremendous opportunity to come here and be recognized by you all. And I also want to thank my administration. Our school has always had tremendous administration. It's been very supportive and helped our programs develop.

[00:59:54] In our case, for our boys, 4-Bite Relay and our pole vaulter, Michael Murray, they won the indoor state championships in those events. So it was a different experience to kind of come into the outdoor season with that level of expectation and the kind of targets that they would have on their backs given their previous season's victory.

[01:00:16] So to see them carry that through the season and then perform well in the postseason, again, was very rewarding. So thank you. Thank you very much, Coach, and thank all of our coaches for being here as well. And at this time, if the board could rise for a photo, I'll come down to the front.

[01:00:34] if all board members could rise.

[01:01:09] And we now have the track and field champions girls.

[01:01:48] And again, we're going to do the same thing. If I call your name or team name, come on down for the photo. South County High 4x100 meter relay team. South County High 4x400 meter relay team. West Springfield 4x800 meter relay team.

[01:02:05] Mia Mason, South County High 100 meter dash. Julia Wallace, South County High 400 meter dash. Caroline Elliott, South Lakes High, 800-meter run. Caroline Elliott, also still at South Lakes, 1,600-meter run.

[01:02:25] A Prius Smith Chantilly High School triple jump. And Jacqueline Bullock Chantilly pole vault. If I called your name, please come on down. And once again, if you're a coach and would like to say a few words, you're welcome to do so.

[01:02:43] Welcome back. In talking about our girls' 4x800 meter relay, that was its own special experience because as was recognized for, I believe it was the TJ girls' tennis team, our girls' 4x8 had finished second each of the last five 4x8s at the state meet.

[01:03:12] And no small part because Southlakes' anchor is an incredible athlete. So we've had some instances where it was very tough to get far enough away to make that possible. And in this particular case, our girls executed a perfect race and got just far enough away to be able to make that happen.

[01:03:31] So it was a very exciting race. So thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. And at this time, I think we're ready for a photo if the board could rise.

[01:04:53] And next up, we have the crew event champions. And I have some handwritten ones here, so if I don't recognize you or recognize you incorrectly, please feel free to come down here and correct us. But we have the Madison High School Girls Junior 8+, Madison High School Girls Lightweight 8+, Madison High School Girls Second 8+, Madison High School Girls Third 8+, McLean High School Girls 8+, Varsity 8.

[01:05:25] and then i have added here the south county boys crew is that right okay if you all could come on down if i called your team uh please come on down so that we can make sure we get a photo

[01:05:38] so we have a very large group here uh so what we're going to do is in a moment the board is

[01:06:56] going to rise for a photo i'm going to come down on front and then i would ask if there are any coaches here uh representing any of these teams if they can stand back for a moment uh and share a few words with us if they would like to after we take the photo. So first we're going to take a

[01:07:12] photo, then we're going to hear from any of the coaches who would like to speak. All right.

[01:11:53] Congratulations to all of you. And let me say we have Office of Public Affairs who works with schools. Apologize for the schools that weren't announced. I know a number of them from Langley, individual votes that were not announced, any others that were not announced. We apologize.

[01:12:09] We'll get that fixed, but certainly want to recognize all of our student-athletes. Congratulations to all of you. We're proud of all of you, and thank you for being here this morning. If any of the coaches, before we exit, if any of the coaches are here, we'd love to hear from the coaches.

[01:12:31] So if the students want to head back to their seats, we'll have an opportunity to hear from some of the coaches who are here today who would like to share a few words with us. We would appreciate that. Okay?

[01:12:53] If you're one of the coaches, I can't see over there. But it's okay. If you're here, one of the coaches, just please introduce yourself and share a few words with us. Thank you. Absolutely. Good morning, honorable supervisors. My name is Kevin Bedell. I'm the head coach at Langley High School.

[01:13:09] And I want to thank you all first for recognizing the accomplishment of these athletes and for having us here this morning. I also want to thank you for the support of rowing both through the high schools and through the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, which built, owns, and operates the facility where most of these athletes train and also happens to be one of the premier rowing facilities in the country.

[01:13:36] I'll make a comment specifically about the Langley crews that are being honored here today, but it probably applies to many of the athletes standing before you, which is one of the nice things about rowing. It embodies many of the values that Dr. King spoke of earlier this morning in that every athlete on the Langley team certainly has the opportunity to compete for a state championship in an active manner, not being the 60th kid standing on the sideline, but out there in control of their own fate in a boat on state championship day.

[01:14:08] And you see many of those athletes before you here today. Thank you again for both your recognition and your support. Thank you very much, Coach. Welcome. Thank you, Kevin, and thank you to the Board of Supervisors and also to the Justice High School principal, because I represent right here as an assistant coach the Justice High School Girls Quad.

[01:14:34] Dr. Sean Rowland is our principal and has supported us all the way through this wonderful and quite challenging but ultimately successful season. Brian Garvey is with us, our director of student activities as well, And I'd like to acknowledge our head coach, Nate Carmody, and our other assistant coaches, Katie Nell and Charles Haver.

[01:14:54] One of the things about rowing is it is a collective effort. It's a collective sport. And it is, I think, ultimately, as Kevin mentioned, the ultimate team sport. In our case, which is the Justice Girls Quad, we had a challenging season marked by what we'll call collective resilience.

[01:15:16] And that's exactly what they showed, and I'm sure what all of the young ladies and gentlemen here showed throughout their course of this particular season. We were not only state champions and recognized for that earlier this year, but we also went to the Scholastic Nationals and brought home the only medal in this region, in this Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. region, which was a silver medal in the girls' junior varsity quad.

[01:15:43] And this came after a moment that defined what this sport is all about, which is the resilience that a collective mentality shows. When we were leading the final, which was unexpected by almost everybody, because in this sport often dominated by powerful and large physiques, which we are most definitely not.

[01:16:06] This, although we actually never really had a chance at that. But we had, as I think most of us have in here, a giant spirit and a giant soul. And that is what happened with 600 meters to go in the final when we were up by a few feet over a crew from Utah.

[01:16:27] Again, the national championships bring the best crews from all over the country here. And at that point, we suffered what is called in rowing a crab, which is where your oar, one of your blades, gets stuck in the water and can have a disastrous effect.

[01:16:43] on the crew. It did with us, and we lost 12 seconds, which is, on a scale of 1 to 10, a lot. Having said that and slipped into third place, the crew had two choices. They could give in to despair and give up, or they could decide as individuals and then collectively rapidly to come together to execute one of the most remarkable comebacks that I've ever seen.

[01:17:11] And as was mentioned earlier by, I think, Coach Petillo in one of the tennis championships, it inspired us who are very prone to tears to go to that state because they came back and moved into a silver medal position and made up six of the 12 seconds on the leading crew, finishing an amazing second place and a silver medalist.

[01:17:36] There's no question in my mind that we probably would have won that race. But either way, it wasn't about where we finished. It was about what rowing itself is about, which is the ability to come together in moments of crisis and lock around those things which are so hard to overcome, which is the natural tendency for entropy, to go otherwise where you would not want to go.

[01:18:08] Here, we know how difficult it is to bring individuals together into a collective mindset. And that's what was emphasized there. And I am proud of all of you here that represent this great sport, which I have wanted to be a part of my entire life.

[01:18:23] And you now have the ability to be part of for the rest of your lives. And we were all proud of you, the parents, the administrators, the board, and everybody else who has supported you through this. And so congratulations to you all. And I couldn't be prouder of our Justice High School crew, but also of all of us in this great sport.

[01:18:43] Thank you. Thank you. Those were great words. My name is Azim Hojibayev. I'm an assistant crew coach at McLean High School. Just to resonate the same sentiment, I am very proud of every single athlete here that stands before me because crew is a very difficult sport.

[01:19:07] You train 25 to 30 hours a day mentally and physically just to race five to six minutes on a weekend, maybe twice that, hopefully. And a lot of you did that. And a lot of you, I saw win and accomplish your state championship achievement in a great way.

[01:19:27] Just to focus on the McLean athletes for now, I would like to first thank the administration at our school, our recently transitioned principal, Dr. Riley, our athletic director, Mr. Greg Miller.

[01:19:44] They've been amazing advocates for our sport, and we thrive directly thanks to them. Now on to the athletes. I'm here to speak about the boys' novice four that won the state championship by lengths of open water.

[01:20:03] You mentioned 12 seconds, length of open water, which is, I would equalize that to a touchdown in football, if you will. So these guys won by at least seven lengths of open water, crushing their competition in a formidable way, a very decisive victory.

[01:20:22] Not only that, the entire season was marked by nothing but wins. And I believe they were pretty undefeated locally, and even going up against competition in Philadelphia, which is a very competitive area for rowing, and winning there as well. These boys had a lot of fun.

[01:20:39] They grew a lot, and they achieved the championship with resilience. On to the girls. The girls' freshman eight had a very similar experience. They started the season strong, and they kept up their season with improvements in every single race that they had.

[01:20:55] Ultimately, it was not a question of if they win, it was a question of by how much they would win. They worked very hard through morning practices, afternoon practices, showing up during very rainy and tough weather moments and persevered throughout the season achieving their championship.

[01:21:15] We are very, very proud of you all here at McLean and very much proud of every athlete beyond McLean. We thank our competition all the time. Please keep working hard. Please keep rowing faster. And ultimately, we want to thank the Board of Supervisors for being such supportive members of the community for the sport.

[01:21:34] We wouldn't have this without you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Brian Tylender. I'm the head coach at Woodson. I would like to recognize our women's second eight and our women's novice eight for their state championships.

[01:21:55] I'm really inspired to see all of you in front of you and to see how the sport has grown as someone who is a Fairfax County graduate and was at West Potomac the last time they won a state championship in 1990. I'm not, whatever it is, 26 years old or whatever the supervisor was claiming over there.

[01:22:15] I'd also like to just, in addition to all the coaches, I'd like to shout out our own coaches, Coach Mickey, who coached the second eight, and Coach Ron, who coached the novice eight to their third straight state championship in that event.

[01:22:32] And I'd like to also give a shout-out for all the parents in our sport. Our sport, more than ever, requires a lot of work from the parents, and none of you would be here without the support of your parents, so make sure you thank them and not roll your eyes so hard when you get home. And they ask you to take pictures after this.

[01:22:49] Thank you, guys. This is Beasley. I am the freshman women's coach. I just wanted to say I'm proud of my freshman girls four for what they accomplished this year.

[01:23:10] I also want to give an honorable mention to Coach Mel's team, the two V-Mens, for what they accomplished together this year. I also want to give my thanks out to the board and the parents and the volunteers that helped us all get to where we are.

[01:23:28] Yeah. Thank you very much. And before we exit, I think we should reflect on a moment here because we, as county officials, talk to folks in other counties throughout Virginia all the time, and we forget sometimes how blessed we are.

[01:23:54] There are counties in Virginia that might be lucky enough to have one championship team every once in a while, and we've just spent the better part of the morning recognizing student athletes from schools all over Fairfax County and all different sports. And I think that doesn't resonate enough with us.

[01:24:12] And many of these state champions are state champions because they played tremendous other teams within Fairfax County Public Schools who may not have won state championships but are tremendous teams as well. And so I want to thank FCPS, Dr. King for being here, all the parents, teachers, faculty, boosters, support structures that are in place that help our student-athletes.

[01:24:38] Every year, I know this is a proud moment, we recognize our fall and spring sports state champions here in this auditorium. It's a new tradition that we've started, and the volume of it is just so darn impressive and how blessed we are to live in a place with such a strong public school system, but also such a strong community supporting all of our students and particularly all of our student athletes.

[01:25:01] So congratulations to all of you.

[01:25:13] Now, everyone race back to class.

[01:25:17] If folks who are exiting could please exit quietly.

[01:26:59] We're going to move on to our next agenda item, which is appointments to boards, authorities, commissions, and advisory groups. And at this time, I'd recognize Supervisor Smith. I move approval of appointments to the boards, authorities, and commissions in the document dated August 26, 2025.

[01:27:15] And I'm happy to second that. Are there any appointments board members would like to pull or have voted on separately? Seeing and hearing none. all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries and next we're going to move to board matters and as we always do these have been compiled digitally we'll go alphabetically by district following myself and vice chairman smith and before i do that i just want to remind my colleagues that we do have a deadline for submitting these to the clerk's office by 3 pm so that the clerk's office can distribute them out and i'm not going

[01:27:54] to call anyone out by name but not all of us got our board matters in by three and so if we could please try to do that it makes it easier on the clerk to be able to compile them and and distribute them digitally i have a few board matters this morning and i'm going to begin with my board matter that is to move without objection i've handed the gavel to supervisor smith without objection the proclamation requests listed in this document in the interest of time i'm not going to read them all but you can see there's a lot of them on this document for to either bring before the board or to be held outside of the board auditorium without objection

[01:28:34] it's so ordered. Thank you, Supervisor Smith. My second board matter is a board matter to send a letter to George Mason University Board of Visitors. And just by way of background, George Mason University is a critical partner to Fairfax County contributing to the region's economic growth, workforce development, and educational access. The university enrolls more than 40,000 students, employs over 11,000 faculty and staff, and contributes $3.5 billion annually

[01:29:09] to the Northern Virginia economy. In the 2024-2025 academic year, Mason is expected to award more than 12,000 diplomas and certificates. About 85% of graduates remain in our region, and many are part of our workforce. Recently, concerns were raised regarding university leadership. Despite Despite this, the George Mason University Board of Visitors approved a salary increase for President Gregory Washington.

[01:29:36] Fairfax County continues to support the important work George Mason University is doing on campus and throughout our community. We recognize that stable leadership is essential to the University's continued success and its strong partnership with Fairfax County.

[01:29:52] Therefore I move the Board of Supervisors approve the attached letter to the George Mason University Board of Visitors, expressing Fairfax County strong support for the board's recent decision and affirming our ongoing partnership with George Mason University. I'll second that motion along with Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion? Yeah, very briefly. You know, this is a little bit unusual to do this letter, but I think really important. And I was inspired watching the Board of Visitors meeting and listening to all the accomplishments, not just the president of Washington, but of the university. And when you look at George Mason University, in just about

[01:30:29] every statistical category, they are far excelling and outpacing many of the more known universities in Virginia and across the country. And I think it's a story we don't tell enough, frankly. And I was saddened to see some of the criticism towards President Washington and the work that he's been doing, because many of the things that he is working on are consistent with Fairfax County's principals, but I was heartened to see such a strong show of support from the community, and most importantly, such a strong show of support from the business community.

[01:31:04] Not just graduates, not just people directly affiliated with the university, but so many well-known business executives who have started an online webpage to support the university and again are telling the story of how important this university is, not just to the economy of Fairfax County, but to the economy of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[01:31:25] And so it is far past time that our boards show our strong support for the work that's being done at George Mason University and our support for President Washington. Thank you. Supervisor Walkinshaw and then Lesk. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate this board matter and the letter.

[01:31:42] And I'll just say, as someone who has worked very closely with President Washington, I chair this year, our Fairfax County City Campus Advisory Board, where the county, city, and university come together to talk about our shared objectives and perhaps the challenges sometimes that we encounter together.

[01:32:03] President Washington has done an incredible job and, quite frankly, a significant improvement during his tenure in the university's engagement with our community and especially with the neighborhoods that surround George Mason University that I represent. He is active and engaged and serious about getting our community's input in terms of the university's continued success. And you know, I think if you look at every metric of success for the president of a university from

[01:32:37] enrollment to fundraising to research dollars, he has been an incredible success story. And to your point, Mr. Chairman. You know, we're a community, even in our community, there are political divisions, right? But one of the things it's been really heartening to see our community united about Democrats, independents, Republicans, business, labor, it has been his success as a leader at George Mason University. And I just cannot fathom anyone who actually takes an

[01:33:12] objective, serious look at his tenure and can come to any other conclusion. If you come to another conclusion, you have a different kind of agenda, not an agenda about what's best for the university and what's best for our community here. So I appreciate this letter and look forward to supporting the motion.

[01:33:30] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Supervisor Lusk. Thank you very much, Madam Vice Chair. I'll say I concur with all the comments from my colleagues and also appreciate the acknowledgement of the great work that Dr. Washington is doing at George Mason.

[01:33:46] He has been a phenomenal leader, and I'll say even in the South County, his imprint exists as well. He's been very active in supporting a number of opportunities for our residents who in many cases don't have access to drone technologies.

[01:34:03] He sponsored STEM Fest events through the university in our community, which have made a difference in helping kids in our communities learn about technology and access to technology. I just appreciate his commitment to doing what's right at the university.

[01:34:24] And going back to the points I raised by Supervisor Walkinshaw, any measurable evaluation of his work would not lead to him not continuing to serve at George Mason University.

[01:34:40] So I appreciate the Board of Visitors has done the right thing here, and they've also provided him with a modest salary increase. But I just hope he continues to have the opportunity to do what he's done so effectively on behalf of this county and this Commonwealth and even this nation.

[01:35:00] Because you have so many students who come to George Mason from places all over the world, and they're learning about our community when they come here. And they're making decisions also about where they want to use their education, where they want to deploy their training.

[01:35:19] And we have opportunities to have those international students stay in this community and do good works. And with that, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Madam Vice Chairman. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye.

[01:35:34] Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries with Supervisor Herity away from the table. Mr. Chairman. Okay, thank you. My next board matter deals with Fairfax County's economic competitiveness. Fairfax County has long been recognized as the economic engine of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[01:35:53] Of course, none of this has occurred in a vacuum. As a result of efforts spanning decades, Fairfax County has positioned itself as a preeminent location where businesses not only choose to locate, but also thrive and grow. The Board of Supervisors, building on the work of previous boards, has made significant strategic investments to strengthen our economic foundation.

[01:36:13] These investments include, among other things, expanding access to high-quality public education, ensuring our workforce is prepared for the jobs of today and tomorrow, building and maintaining critical infrastructure that allows commerce and innovation to flourish, funding workforce development initiatives to connect residents to emerging opportunities, providing small business grants across industries to drive resilience and innovation, partnering with institutions and employers to create a reliable talent pipeline aligned with the needs of key sectors, pursuing visionary land use and economic strategies that have resulted in

[01:36:51] mixed-use, transit-oriented communities where employers want to locate and employees want to live, and so much more. The results of these efforts speak for themselves. Over fiscal years FY2022-24, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority assisted with the retention and creation of nearly 28,000 jobs, with over 90 percent of these jobs being retained and created without the state's assistance. In fact, in FY 2024, there were 9,247 jobs created in Fairfax

[01:37:26] County with the assistance of the EDA, and only 8,210 created with the assistance of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership statewide. Statewide. It is clear that Virginia's economy is dependent in no small part on Fairfax County's success.

[01:37:45] Additionally, Fairfax County accounts for more than 25 percent of Virginia's total private sector employment and contributes over $167 billion annually to the state's gross domestic product, a figure that reflects a 9.3 percent year-over-year growth outpacing the region and the nation.

[01:38:06] And yet, despite Fairfax County's economic achievements, we know that due to cuts at federal level and continued rise in cost of housing, many of our residents and businesses are currently facing major challenges. Fairfax County has a well-earned reputation for strategic planning, and now is the time for us to double down on the practices that have been foundational to our successes. Part of this effort should be grounded in being data-informed. Data-informed.

[01:38:35] Not opinion, but data-informed, which is what's in this document. As such, this board matter has several requests included in the following motion. I move that the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority provide relevant information on trends as it relates to business attraction and retention, key industry clusters, global competitiveness, comparative analyses with peer jurisdictions, and continue to monitor and report changes at the federal level and its impact on residents and businesses alike.

[01:39:07] I move that the board direct the county executive to study potential options to enhance Fairfax County's competitive edge in attracting, retaining, and expanding businesses to Fairfax County. This study should include, but not be limited to, the following areas at the state and local level as appropriate.

[01:39:25] Opportunities for streamlining regulatory processes and requirements, evaluation of the effectiveness of financial and non-financial incentives, Considerations of how to strengthen workforce development initiatives, strategies for increasing housing availability and affordability to support our workforce, ideas for aligning the pace of physical infrastructure to meet business and community needs, and blueprints for how to augment Fairfax County's marketing of its economic success while also informing our residents of our successful efforts.

[01:39:58] And I would add there, I think the numbers that I just shared tell the story of Fairfax County, and we could do a much better job telling that story about why we are the state's economic engine. It's undeniable. The county executive should work with all relative stakeholders as needed, including but not limited to the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, Department of Economic Initiatives, VEDP, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, higher education institutions, workforce partners, housing professionals, and the broader business community. Furthermore, I move that the county executive report back to the board with findings and recommendations no later

[01:40:38] than six months from today's meeting. However, if there are elements of the request listed above that could be provided sooner, the board would welcome such updates so that we may act with urgency and continue to maintain Fairfax County's role as the Commonwealth of Virginia's economic leader for decades to come. I'll second that motion. Any discussion on the motion? Yes, Very briefly, there's been some news stories out there, absurd ones, I might add, about what's going on with economic development in Fairfax County.

[01:41:09] And the numbers here speak for themselves, the work that the EDA, the Chamber, and so many others do, outpacing job growth. I mean, when you think about Fairfax County creating more jobs than the rest of the Commonwealth combined, that's pretty eye-opening. And I think something that, you know, we don't say enough and don't proclaim enough, and we should, especially at a time where we're facing significant challenges due to cuts at the federal level.

[01:41:36] And so we do great work in this area. We want to make sure we're maintaining that and that the times that we're facing right now, that we're making any necessary pivots or at least having conversations about any necessary pivots that are necessary to maintain the strong reputation that we have.

[01:41:56] I also have handed out with this board matter an editorial that I wrote that ran in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch, which, again, is pointing out the economic competitiveness of Fairfax County and the fact that we hope that while we are playing offense on so many things here in the county with our own economy, that we also play some defense at a statewide level and hoping that we have people who can speak up and support our federal workers and our federal contractors and Northern Virginia's economy the way this board has consistently done so in the past.

[01:42:33] And there are alarming trends happening at a state level that despite Fairfax County's success and these numbers, which most jurisdictions and entire states would dream of, we know that things are happening like a drop in CNBC's top business rating for Virginia.

[01:42:50] We know that the number of vacant jobs in northern Virginia has decreased dramatically as a result of mostly contractors cutting back on available jobs. this board has talked about this from this dais significantly. We've heard from a number of our big defense contractors and non-defense federal contractors of significant layoffs at businesses like Booz Allen Hamilton, MITRE, and Leidos, to name just a few. And we know that what's happening at the national level is real. It's not fake. It's real, and it's having an effect. And so we

[01:43:26] will continue to do, as I put in the editorial, we will continue to do our part to look at every single possible thing we can be doing to build upon the very strong economy we have in Fairfax County, even when we're facing federal headwinds that are of no fault of a single person in Fairfax County. And so the point of this board matter is to give the county executive, DEI, the EDA, Some others, the latitude to come back with increased plans for being even more strident.

[01:43:58] And I do want to thank all of the groups that are mentioned in this board matter because they were all a part in helping my office craft it. So none of these asks are a surprise to our county agencies or to the EDA or to our Chamber of Commerce. And then lastly, you might ask why the housing piece is in here.

[01:44:17] And I will just tease this a little bit to say, while this is a comprehensive board matter, I do plan to come to our next board meeting with a comprehensive board matter also dealing with affordable housing, because this is a key piece of this whole conversation.

[01:44:33] When we think of affordable housing, I was asked at a regional panel recently what the number one thing that I am concerned about for our region, and the number one thing I am concerned about is all these laid-off employees, very sophisticated, very well established in their field, highly compensated individuals leaving our area because they lose a job that's necessary to pay for them to be able to afford to live in this area.

[01:45:01] So if your main concern, as mine is, is retaining the talent that we have, you have to think about the intersection of the cost of housing in that conversation, because when we've talked to some folks who have left this area, the number one reason they've left, A, they lost their job, and B, they went somewhere more affordable to live because of the cost of housing here.

[01:45:23] And you're hearing this from the Chamber of Commerce and others now, which is a breath of fresh air. We've been talking about this for a while as a board, but there will be a comprehensive board matter coming at the next meeting dealing with ways to strengthen our affordable housing initiatives the same way this board matter strengthens our financial competitive, economic competitiveness, not only in the region, but in the state.

[01:45:47] And if we are going to continue to lead in these areas, we have to always be thinking about what the next thing is and what the next opportunity is. And so I appreciate all the work that went into this board matter and all the work staff is going to put into coming back to the board and would appreciate my colleagues' support of it.

[01:46:05] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have Supervisor Stork, Walkinshaw, Palachick, Beerman, and Lusk. Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. And I absolutely want to echo the points that are in here. And I particularly wanted to focus on the point that the chairman made about data does matter.

[01:46:26] We have statements about, you know, how you act. And there's one thing to act. There's another thing to talk about it. And in reality, in fact, for decades, Fairfax County has acted and made it happen. The future for Virginia is still and continues to be critically about Fairfax County and its successes.

[01:46:48] But those successes are, to get there, we had one arm tied behind our back. And that one arm tied behind our back is what we get back from the state, making it that much harder for us to do what we've been so successful at doing.

[01:47:04] And you all have heard me a million times, and maybe this will be one million and one now, but when you get back about 50 cents of what you send down to Richmond, and you're expecting to do everything to, frankly, grow the economy, grow the economy for Virginia, as we clearly have done, but also the growth of the economy for this area, pay for the quality of education that we know attracts people here, also to build the support within businesses.

[01:47:27] You know, it's crucial that we get a better deal and that Fairfax County and Northern Virginia gets a better deal from the state. And if we're truly going to continue to drive economic growth in our community, in our state, we are doing that in two critical areas. Absolutely, one is AI.

[01:47:45] You know, we're clearly a leader in that. We're clearly working on that. We clearly have more to do. Obviously, data centers are generally a key part of that in Northern Virginia. But the other is about two other major sectors of the economy. And space is one of those, and quantum is the other. And we are holding a number of seminars and conventions, work sessions, et cetera, to make that happen.

[01:48:08] I commend EDA. I commend our county executive and others going around the country and letting folks know that we're not just talking about it. We're actually implementing it. We're doing it. We're working hard to make sure that we do win the future, as we've consistently done for more than a decade, and that winning that future is winning for Virginia as well.

[01:48:27] So thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Walkinshaw, then Palczyk. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the board matter, and I think its value is in that we're acknowledging our success, which is pretty significant, especially in light of Virginia more broadly, really struggling but but we're looking forward and i think that's a fairfax county way that we always want to be innovating we always want to be improving a piece of this that is important i think is there's there's a lot of numbers in here which are all valuable but behind these numbers especially

[01:49:06] the numbers with respect to job losses are our people in our communities and you know i've had the opportunity over the last several months to spend a lot of time with folks across fairfax County who have lost their federal job, who have been laid off as contractors because of the actions, oftentimes illegal actions, of the Trump administration. And those are folks who are our neighbors and are in a really tough spot right now. They're sitting around their dinner tables every night, and mom and dad are figuring out how we're going to pay the mortgage, how we're going to pay for groceries. And I think one of the things that compounds it is, you know, we have a

[01:49:44] governor who has been cheerleading, frankly, for the policies that are leading to those job losses. And I've said this before, I'm old enough to recall a previous governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia by the name of Bob McDonald, who when folks even from his own political party in Washington were advancing policies that hurt Virginia, he went to Washington, stood up and spoke out against it. And I'm still waiting for our governor to be willing to do that. I think it could have a positive impact and I'm still hopeful he'll do that. One of the things that I'm excited about in this board matter that, you know, in the conversations I've been having, I think is really

[01:50:20] key is a workforce development piece because we know our greatest strength as a county and as a region is the talent and the skills and the education level of our workforce. And the key in this moment is keeping as many of them as possible here. And the way we keep them here is to skill match them with jobs that are available, although that's harder and harder every day.

[01:50:42] I talk to folks who have submitted 100, 200, 300, 700 applications. A lot of folks aren't hiring. But skill match where we can, but also re-skill and up-skill folks who can transition to different jobs. And it's going to take a concerted effort to do that, and it has to happen very quickly.

[01:50:59] And I think this board matter, and hopefully with better partners in Richmond or a better partnership with those who are in Richmond now can move us in that direction. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. I have Supervisor Palczyk and then Beerman. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.

[01:51:15] And first of all, definitely want to agree with so much with what my colleagues have said, but really thank the chairman on this board matter. It really, to me, shows leadership and an interest in governance at the full county level to help address the biggest issues and definitely excited to hear looking forward to the Housing Board matter. I appreciate so much that it was included here. And as he mentioned, it's not just us talking about it. It is goal number two in the Northern Virginia Chambers roadmap is to cultivate

[01:51:50] affordability for our workforce to make it an affordable place to live, work, and raise a family. And as we know, pre-cuts we had about 90,000 jobs that went unfilled in the region. And now we're about half that, though I haven't checked in a while.

[01:52:09] And unfortunately, a lot of that is because we became a little bit like a factory town whose factory was closing up a lot of its sectors, not thoughtfully, not responsibly, and not with an understanding of the impact both to its own employees, but also to its work and its work, not just nationally, but in the region.

[01:52:30] And so, you know, we are fortunate, maybe unfortunately, that a lot of the defense and contracting that happens here hasn't been hurt as badly, but so much of the other work and so many of the agencies and employees who have been impacted, they're our neighbors, right?

[01:52:47] I know of at least two homes that were recently sold because the families had to move out of the area because they could not find a new home. And we already had a housing shortage regionally and nationally. So as we work together, and this to me is a cry and a call for not just local, but our state and our federal authorities to be as invested as every single mayor and local chair and local office has to be across the nation right now to ensure that we have that competitiveness.

[01:53:19] I think what we're seeing is that the county has already done so much, but there's an investment to do more. So much of it aligned with our economic development partners, with our educational partners, and I very much appreciate our workforce partners being listed here.

[01:53:37] I will assume and hope that within that, it includes our academies that have wait lists, right? Our high school academies, Falls Church has the Health Sciences Academy, Marshall Academy has IT and cyber. They are always running wait lists.

[01:53:53] We know that there's a huge need and demand and for our students, and we heard it at the CEO meeting, right? Housing and workforce and college is too late. So while we continue to do that, continuing to support and understand how we can expand the opportunities for our youth and for our workforce that has been left out.

[01:54:13] So thank you again to the chairman and to all the staff who will be tasked with the work to help us bring forward some areas of opportunity and really rolling up our sleeves to find some new and creative ways to help meet the needs of our community.

[01:54:29] Thank you. Supervisor Bierman, then Lusk. Thank you, Vice Chairman Smith. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing this board matter, which is, I think, absolutely necessary right now. We are facing lots of big challenges in this county because of things that are happening across the river, because we don't have the partnership in Richmond that we deserve, and we need to be proactive in what we are doing.

[01:55:00] And this board matter makes clear that we are being proactive. Now, that being said, it feels a little bit like Groundhog Day. I look back at the tape. I was literally wearing this exact same tie when on March 4th, I sat here and I pleaded with Governor Yunkin to show some leadership. I asked, I hope he does rise to the occasion. I said, I think he can. And when he does, I'll be the first one clapping in the front row. How naive I was. How naive I was. I thought he would actually stand up for his constituents and stand up for people in Virginia.

[01:55:39] And instead, as has happened, in case you missed some of the news stories that were referenced by Chairman McKay, instead we get letters like this one or this one from the Secretary of Commerce where literally every single line in here is nonsense.

[01:55:56] We do not have to pretend that anyone is acting in good faith if they are sending out and putting out nonsense claiming that we here in Fairfax County need to get off the sidelines to try and get private business investment in your locality.

[01:56:13] I mean, on what planet has the Secretary of Commerce been spending most of his time? Because certainly not the planet in which Virginia is looking at seven straight months in which unemployment has risen under his watch. Under his watch.

[01:56:30] I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the BS. But let me be very, very clear about something. And yes, I do get a little fiery. I get a little fired up. I also am really fired up about Fairfax County. If you want to do business in Fairfax County, call one of the 10 people up here on this dais. Call Brian Hill. That's our county executive.

[01:56:59] Call Rebecca Mowdry. That's Department of Economic Initiatives. Call Victor Hoskins. We will work with you. We will work with you on talent development. We will work with you on trying to have a government that is more efficient and effective when you want to do business here we will work with you on everything that's here on strategies for increasing housing availability and affordability for your workforce aligning the pace of physical infrastructure to meet business and community needs we will talk about financial and non-financial incentives you know commerce secretary says we don't offer enough financial incentives he's sitting on a

[01:57:37] three billion dollar budget i looked it up on the website three billion dollars has he reached out to us about financial incentives here, partnership with Fairfax County? No, no. But if you want to do business in Fairfax County, come to us, come to our staff. We will work with you because it's a great place to do business. We've got great schools. We've got strong infrastructure. We have a great fire department. We are safe. We have a good police force. We got good social services. We got beautiful

[01:58:11] parks. Hell, we even got great live music. Talked about that at the last meeting. We will work with you, every single one of us up here. And I don't care what political party you're from. If you're a Republican, call me. You know, call us. We will work with you. We've got transit opportunities. We built a metro line through our county to make it easier for businesses and people to move around.

[01:58:41] that's good for business. And we're going to keep working on it. You know, last week I toured the Workforce Innovation Skills Hub with Rodney Lusk. There's an idea, by the way, that just shows you the types of things that we work on up here on this dais. I'm going to, maybe I'll embarrass him a little bit. Rodney saw a problem in his community. He saw that he needed to have people in his community get more workforce development training. He saw that there were opportunities to work with partners at George Mason, to work with unions, to work with the trades,

[01:59:20] and he got it done. He got it done. And by the way, when I was down there, I mentioned political parties. They also thank Supervisor Herity for helping with that because we get it done here in Fairfax County, and we're going to continue to get it done here in Fairfax County. And this board matter is very strong because it tells our county executive, sorry, Brian, you got a lot of work to do, we're going to continue getting it done. So that's all I got. Thanks. Thank you. Supervisor

[01:59:55] Lusk, then Harrity. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to follow after that. Let me start by saying I worked at the Economic Development Authority for 21 years before I came to this board and had the honor and the privilege of helping to expand the commercial tax base in this county. And during the tenure that I was there, we had a lot more support from the Commonwealth.

[02:00:21] There were many projects that we did have investment that came from the Commonwealth to help us incentivize those projects growing and expanding here in this community. What we've seen over the last six plus years is less support from the Commonwealth, less investment coming to support our closure of deals. And I want to commend the EDA for still being able to close those deals.

[02:00:53] What they've shown and demonstrated with their numbers is a commitment to still creating jobs, even when they don't have the right tools. And other communities, you look at Maryland, you look at other states, they are putting significant amounts of dollars into the support of those specific expansions.

[02:01:16] So I just want to make the point that we've got to do things a little differently, and this board matter gives us the ability to do that. The point about workforce is one I want to sort of double down on as well because what we've seen over the last, it's been about seven months, is the point that Dahlia made.

[02:01:36] So we had over 90,000 jobs that were available in our region at the end of December. When we got to the end of January, after it became clear that the federal government was going to be making pretty drastic changes as it relates to employees in the federal government, we saw that 90,000 number drop to 45, and it's still roughly at 45 as of right now.

[02:02:07] So what I also want to say is that we've got to figure out how to leverage the positions that are available in our region and to do the matching. So it goes back to the point that the chairman was saying is that we've got to figure out how to ensure that we can upskill, train, and move people who have lost their jobs into these vacant positions.

[02:02:35] And I want to commend the Northern Virginia Regional Commission for the work that they've been doing to help align and talk about these 45,000 job opportunities, but then to figure out how we can support those who have lost their jobs.

[02:02:52] The original focus was on those who are transitioning servicemen and women and also those who were military spouses. But they've now expanded that to beyond, making it even broader, because there's a need for us to provide those opportunities.

[02:03:08] And we need to look for ways to better leverage and better support the retention of talent that we have today, making sure that they stay here in our county. So we've got a great board matter that's been authored by the chairman. I am very supportive of it.

[02:03:24] I look forward to seeing the recommendations that come back. I look forward to having, as you indicated, Mr. Chairman, other entities, including Northern Virginia Regional Commission, because, again, they're working on a number of these issues, and I think they're going to be instrumental in helping us achieve the goals that we want.

[02:03:45] And ultimately, I believe that we have an opportunity to support as many of our residents who are currently unemployed in being able to find employment. And we will look for ways to do that.

[02:04:03] So with that, thank you very much, Madam Vice Chairman. Thank you. I have Supervisor Herity and then Jimenez. Yes, Madam Chairman. I will be supporting the board matter. There's been so much in the discussion to comment on.

[02:04:18] I heard Virginia is struggling and something about using just the facts. At a recent joint money committee address, Virginia, $2.7 billion revenue over forecast, $1.7 billion cash cushion, rainy day fund of $4.7 billion.

[02:04:37] They also have the AAA bond rating that we've had since my dad chaired the board. $10 billion during the governor's 3.5-year term in terms of surpluses.

[02:04:55] Economic development, $125 billion in capital commitments, $265,000 in new jobs. In-migration versus out-migration, the one I'm a big fan of, cutting regulation by 25%.

[02:05:12] Shovel-ready sites, something that, you know, tough to do in Fairfax County, but has been a big boon to Virginia. And unfortunately, tariffs lost one of those out in Winchester. Unfortunately, due to tariffs, there was a shovel-ready site that would have been perfect and brought 1,700 jobs to the Winchester area that went away because of tariffs to Canada.

[02:05:38] $9 billion in tax relief, another one I'm a big fan of. But, you know, there are threats. Tariffs? Tariffs I just talked about. I mean, the goal is to bring production here. Tariffs actually scared production away to Canada. So things aren't being done as smart as they could.

[02:05:56] Federal job cuts? I'm in the GovCon industry. I'm not currently active in it, but it's taken a big toll on them, which is our biggest industry by far. I talked to agency heads, some of which were in the Trump administration trying to fix things that now are no longer in the Trump administration, and they're not being done in the smartest way. We all know that. We can disagree.

[02:06:22] I think some of them need to be done, but they clearly aren't being done in a smart way. I see the biggest threats to us here, you know, in addition to those two things, is really something we haven't talked about. There's two or three threats, Virginia Clean Economy Act, and reliable and affordable energy in Virginia, and we're going to talk a little bit about that later. We've been talking for years and I'm happy to see it in here. Regulatory reform, the zoning and permitting process. I get calls every day, people trying to do businesses. Those letters from

[02:07:02] the Secretary of Commerce were probably kicked off by the frustration of a couple of people that went to him and said it to us. But, you know, we used to have a two-day walkthrough permit. The best you can do now is nine days. I mean, that's what they say. We're working on doing better, but it plus took it from two days to nine days.

[02:07:23] I agree, housing's the third big threat, but what is not in the board matter that I'd like to see, and hopefully it's in your housing board matter, is the impact of regulation on the timing and timing on the cost of our housing.

[02:07:47] We're about to look at plan forward, and we had our last meeting on plan forward, and we hadn't looked at the cost impact on housing. I got an email just today, and again, it depends on what your mortgage number is, but my resident said, one-third of my mortgage is taxes.

[02:08:07] If you want to address affordable housing, you've got to start there. And we've increased taxes 50% in 10 years. So there's a lot of work to do in housing besides just having us give away land to developers to build affordable government-subsidized housing.

[02:08:25] So I'm really happy to see the inclusion. I heard we're looking for the partnership we deserve, and I'm happy somebody said six-plus years, so it's not a political thing. But I think we need to improve our relationship with the state.

[02:08:41] I'm happy to see VDEP in here. I'm happy to see hopefully we're going to reach out to the state. I'm happy to be a part of that, and I think that's about it. The only other thing, there is on the top of the first page it says that Fairfax County accounts for more than 25% of Virginia's total private sector employment.

[02:09:09] Can we get a look at how that's changed over the years? I'd be very, very interested in that. And also, okay, well, that's good. That's good. Yeah. Also would love to see the education level of our workforce and how that's changed over the last 10 years or so, if that is possible.

[02:09:34] But look forward to seeing the result of this, because we do need to grow our economy. We need to grow it smartly, and we've got some challenges we need to address. Supervisor Jimenez. Thank you so much. And, Mr. Chairman, I commend you on this board of matters.

[02:09:53] You know, it's really important to highlight some of the things that you put in your Richmond article. For example, the fact that Fairfax County contributes more than $167 billion annually to Virginia's economy, more than a quarter of the state's total GDP. I think that's something worth repeating and something for the readers to really take a look at and examine as we move forward.

[02:10:14] You also spoke and others have spoken, Mr. Walkinshaw spoke of the impacts to our residents. I've told this story a couple of times, but my college roommate lost his job. He was working at HUD. His wife lost her job. She was at the NSA. They have a 12-year-old daughter, and the bills keep coming.

[02:10:35] They kept looking and looking for a job. They were very flexible. They had to move to California. There is a massive brain drain that's happening in this area, and it's something that isn't just going to impact the short term, but it's going to impact us in the long term.

[02:10:50] And that's something we need to start looking and studying. We talked about workforce development. Supervisor Palchuk and others talked about the importance. It's happening right now as one of the – as the leader of the task force for workforce development that is also chaired by Vice Chairman Smith.

[02:11:11] You know, we are constantly bringing in labor. We're bringing in developers, school systems. We are trying and working, making sure that there's communication and networking happening, that events are being discussed. And so I think that right now the point is that we're stepping up here in Fairfax County.

[02:11:30] We're doing our part. Things are happening every single day in every single one of our districts, whether it's in Springfield or Franconia or Drainsville. We are all working to try to make sure that our residents feel supported and that our residents know that we, the 10 of us on the board, are there listening and helping during this time of crisis.

[02:11:50] So thank you for this board matter, Mr. Chairman. I believe it's very timely. So before I call on the chairman, I appreciate the board matter coming forward. It is frustrating to hear about surpluses at the state level when we are well aware that the state is underfunding local governments, especially in the area of education.

[02:12:12] Mr. Chairman. Thank you. And, you know, that drives our tax rate. Without a good education system, none of the stuff we just talked about matters. None of it. And so, yes, taxes have gone up because Fairfax County believes in a strong public education system.

[02:12:29] And so I do want to just close on a couple notes, and I appreciate my colleagues' support for this motion and the work that staff is going to do. But I do get irritated about a couple things. One, Supervisor Bierman mentioned the letter from the Commerce Secretary.

[02:12:46] When I received that, I had to verify its validity because I didn't think it was real. It was the most unprofessional, outrageous letter I have ever received in my 18 years on this Board of Supervisors from any individual, much less a cabinet secretary who was new, been in the job for a month, doesn't even know the stuff that he's talking about.

[02:13:10] There was a letter written to us about 400 jobs that were lost. And I would encourage every member of this board in the public to pay attention to that and ask the EDA why that happened. Because the 400 jobs that were referenced are 400 jobs in suburban Maryland right now, of which 50% of them are filled by Fairfax County residents.

[02:13:31] And those 400 jobs didn't come to a building in Tyson's Corner. Why? Because somebody else occupied the space they were looking at in Tyson's Corner. We lost zero jobs. We grew, on average, almost 10,000 jobs a year.

[02:13:49] And we have a Commerce Secretary worried about 400 jobs, of which he has no concept at all of this company. Didn't pick up the phone and call the EDA. Didn't ask him for stats about it. Didn't ask him for what really happened with that opportunity.

[02:14:06] And when I talked to the EDA, sadly, what they told me is what this administration does. And one of the reasons why they come to the state last when they need assistance to make a deal happen in Fairfax County is because the tendency of this administration, and this number we'll never know, is to grab those economic development opportunities that come through the EDA's door and steer them somewhere else into Virginia, outside of Fairfax County.

[02:14:31] We literally, to Supervisor Lusk's conversation about the partnership that we had, it's nice to say we'll reach out to the state. They are literally taking prospects in Fairfax County and encouraging them to go to other parts of the Commonwealth of Virginia by dangling money in front of them.

[02:14:54] That is no way to do economic development. The core of economic development relies on strong infrastructure, as this board matter mentions. Strong workforce, strong education, strong business climate, the things that Fairfax County is known for. And so when I received the letter, I had to verify the validity of it.

[02:15:13] It was so outrageous. It's like people occupying two totally different planets. The presentation that Supervisor Harity mentioned, most of the people in that room that day, because we were down there for VACO the day that happened, they came into the VACO meeting afterwards and said, we don't believe anything that we just heard.

[02:15:34] Because the state doesn't have a surplus, of course, until they pay their bills. But more importantly, those numbers were based on months ago. What is happening today? Thousands and thousands of people losing their federal jobs.

[02:15:50] And the disheartening fact of all of this is we didn't have to be here. As Supervisor Walkinshaw mentioned, some of us who have been involved in Virginia politics through multiple gubernatorial administrations, they know every governor I have met has said, number one agenda item for me is to protect the Commonwealth of Virginia against any threat.

[02:16:11] No state in the United States is under more threat right now than Virginia. None. Zero. And it is inexplicable how any elected official who represents any people don't see these numbers and at least offer some semblance of a brake pedal.

[02:16:29] Look, we're all for reducing the size of government and making it more effective. But when you look at what's happening to people, people in Northern Virginia and families in a reckless way and don't understand that Virginia has more contract money coming from the federal government than any other state and country.

[02:16:48] And we have a governor and an attorney general who are perfectly fine with that. They've said it. The governor has described what's going on in Washington, D.C. as, quote, unquote, necessary. He did it in a room I was in, in front of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association.

[02:17:07] Talk to those builders. Ask them if they think what's happening is necessary. There's absolutely nothing necessary about it. There's a professional way to do this, and there's what's happening in Washington, D.C. that is having an effect on our economy. So the summation of this and of my editorial is if Virginia is not going to step up and do absolutely anything to help us here, we will continue to step up and do the things that are necessary to protect our constituents, starting with the items in this board matter, but really ending with all the work that's already ongoing through all of our partnerships with our chambers, with our universities, with our economic development authorities,

[02:17:46] with all the groups that have been in the business of building Virginia's economy in a bipartisan way for many, many decades to where it is today. And those people, thankfully, unlike the leadership in Richmond, are unwilling to sit by and let that erode without doing a single thing about it. They're ready to work with us, and we will continue to do the work that we need. But you can see the frustration on this board, because we see the real numbers, not what's in the newspaper, not what's in a political ad. We see the real numbers, but more importantly, We're on the ground meeting with the real people who are affected by this.

[02:18:24] And it's not just people. It's a lot of programs in this county, too, that are being affected by what's happening. And sitting back and acting like it's not is absolutely the worst thing you can do at this point in time. And so thank you to my colleagues for your support. Seeing no further discussion.

[02:18:43] All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. My last one is a little more light. But it's an announcement. I want to take a moment to thank our clerk, Jill Cooper, for working with members of the Historic Preservation Committee of District 5 of the Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution on the important work that they're doing to increase public access to historic minutes and summaries of our Board of Supervisors meetings.

[02:19:14] These dedicated volunteers transcribed and indexed nearly 2,000 pages of handwritten minutes covering the earliest years of our board from 1870 to 1923. And thanks to their diligent efforts and support of our Fairfax County staff, the public now has access to searchable records of the Board of Supervisors dating back to 1924.

[02:19:37] Their work ensures that these historic documents remain available through the Virginia Room and the DAR Library, preserving our county's rich heritage for generations to come. My office also shared a letter with the Historic Committee Chair, Angelica M. Stevens, to read at the annual meeting last week of DAR.

[02:19:59] In it, I conveyed on behalf of the entire Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County our deep gratitude for their tremendous dedication to this important historic project. And without Jill Cooper, our clerk's help, that would not have happened. But most importantly, to the Daughters of the American Revolution, who have done amazing, always do amazing work.

[02:20:21] But this particular project is quite phenomenal. And so I just wanted to publicly recognize that and share with my colleagues that a letter of gratitude was set on our behalf. And that is all.

[02:20:39] And so next up is Supervisor Smith. So I want people to notice that I am summarizing. I am going to have another walk in the park at Eleanor C. Lawrence. And I would ask that the Office of Public Affairs advertise the event.

[02:20:55] It will be Saturday, October 11th, beginning at 9 a.m. we'll walk through a historic Eleanor C. Lawrence Park. So without objection, we're going to do that. Okay. The next one is a Centerville Day disposal fee.

[02:21:14] We have the 33rd annual Centerville Day taking place in Centerville Historic District on Saturday, October 18th. They get a lot of support from the community. Therefore, in the interest of maximizing the benefits for this event, I move that the county staff waive the fees for the trash disposal.

[02:21:32] Second. The chairman had to walk away. Yes. Is there a motion? Yes. I move that the fees get waived. Second. There were two seconds. All those in favor, please say aye.

[02:21:51] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? and that passes unanimously with the chairman and Mr. Alcorn away from the table. Thank you very much. Okay, next we are going to go to Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Madam Chair.

[02:22:07] I have two board matters. The first is a joint board matter with a lot of folks and a group of very committed young people I know approached a couple of offices on this. It's a board matter protecting Fairfax County waterways.

[02:22:22] Fairfax County is home to vital water resources, including 30 watersheds encompassing more than 800 miles of streams along with numerous reservoirs and wetlands that flow into the Potomac River, the Ocupine Reservoir, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. These bodies of water not only provide critical habitat, but they also provide recreational opportunities and essential ecological service for our residents, such as pollution reduction and flood risk management.

[02:22:49] For decades, we've continued to improve our efforts to protect local waterways by meeting the requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act and other regulations set forth by the EPA. Our commitment to improving water quality is also guided by the 1993 Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance and the 2017 Environmental Vision.

[02:23:10] The passage of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance led the county to take an active role in improving the bay watershed through the establishment of Resource Protection Areas, or RPAs, and revisions to our land use requirements. While there is still a lot of work to be done, our actions are having a positive impact on local waterways and ultimately the quality of water flowing to the bay.

[02:23:33] These actions, together with our educational and outreach initiatives on the importance of protecting our stormwater systems, streams, the Potomac River, the Occoquan Reservoir, and the Chesapeake Bay, are all critical to protecting water quality, filtering runoff from our watersheds, and reducing soil erosion in Fairfax County.

[02:23:52] Therefore, I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt the attached resolution affirming Fairfax County's commitment to protecting our county waterways through the practices outlined above to be presented outside the boardroom at a time to be determined. Second. That motion's been seconded by Supervisor Bierman. Any discussion?

[02:24:11] Just wanted to add an announcement to this that's related. We'll be holding our third annual Climate Action Conference in the Braddock District, and our focus this year will be on healthy waterways and the impacts of climate change on those waterways.

[02:24:31] And that conference will be held Saturday, October 18th, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lake Braddock. So look forward to seeing everyone there for that. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to call for the vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye.

[02:24:47] Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? That motion passes unanimously. Supervisor Walken, Joe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Final board matter is a motion to reauthorize SSPA 2023-2-3F, Church of the Good Shepherd.

[02:25:03] Mr. Chairman, on April 11, 2023, the board directed staff to evaluate an amendment to the comprehensive plan for tax map parcel 69-4, double circle 1, double circle 6A. The nominator at the time, the Church of the Good Shepherd, located at 9350 Braddock Road in Burke, proposed residential use on a portion of its property at two to three dwelling units per acre, and the board prioritized the nomination as a Tier 3 item on the Comprehensive Plan Amendment Work Program.

[02:25:35] In doing so, the board agreed to defer further consideration pending community outreach by the nominator and consideration of the site for affordable housing. Since that time, the proposed development site has been subdivided from the church's property and a contract purchaser has been retained to facilitate the residential construction.

[02:25:55] The new nominator has conducted multiple meetings with the surrounding community and has shared a revised development concept with residents and the Braddock District Land Use and Environment Committee. Given these actions, it's appropriate that the board reevaluate the plan amendment's original scope and deferred status on the work program.

[02:26:14] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board amend the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Amendment Work Program to reprioritize SSPA 2023-2-3F as a Tier 2 item and direct staff to consider a plan amendment for tax map parcel 69-4, double circle 1, 6A2 for residential use at up to 2 to 3 dwelling units per acre.

[02:26:44] Specific considerations should include affordable housing, tree preservation, usable open space, and other factors to achieve compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood. This motion should not be construed as a favorable recommendation of the plan amendment by the board and does not prejudice the substantive review of the amendment.

[02:27:03] So moved. You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Palchik. Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Beerman. Just a quick question. You said double circle one, but then also double circle six A. Did you just mean double circle 1 and 6A? Lot 6A2. Lot, yeah, I should not.

[02:27:18] If I said double circle twice, I erred. Okay. It's not a quadruple circle, just a double circle. Double circle 1, 6A2. That's correct. Okay. For clarity. Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

[02:27:34] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Walkinshaw. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Walkinshaw. I next have up Supervisor Beerman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will abbreviate my board matters.

[02:27:50] The first is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Lewinsville Retirement Residence. The Lewinsville Retirement Residence is celebrating 50 years of building community in McLean. Therefore, I move that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to prepare a resolution honoring the 50th anniversary of the Lewinsville Retirement Residence to be presented at its November 5th Anniversary Community Gala.

[02:28:12] And the chair will second that motion, along with Supervisor Lusk. Discussion on the motion. Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Beerman. My second board matter is for concurrent processing for 7600 Leesburg Pike, which is RZ 2024-DR-000406.

[02:28:38] I can't cut this one as much as I cut the last one. GACM 2019-FL1-REO-LLC, the applicant, is the contract purchaser of an approximately 10.16-acre parcel located at 7600 Leesburg Pike and identified in the Fairfax County Tax Assessment Records as Tax Map Parcel 40-1-CC-139, the subject property.

[02:29:08] The subject property is zoned to the C2 District and was improved in 1986 with a 230,620-square-foot office building. On April 11, 2023, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the Board, authorized site-specific plan amendment SSPA 2023-II-1M, the SSPA, to consider an increase in residential use up to 12 to 16 dwelling units per acre for the subject property.

[02:29:39] The applicant subsequently filed a rezoning application consistent with the SSPA on March 15, 2024, which was accepted for review on July 24, 2024. The applicant seeks to rezone the subject property from the C2 district to the PDH 816 district to permit the development of 99 traditional townhomes and 38 stacked townhomes a density of 13.1 dwelling units per acre.

[02:30:04] The proposed development will provide a total of 38% open space, including 2.68 acres of open space and a 0.5 acre of publicly accessible urban parks. The applicant has worked closely with county staff to process the SSPA and rezoning applications concurrently.

[02:30:20] Both applications are scheduled for the Planning Commission public hearing on September 10, 2025. The applicant is eager to begin the permitting process and has asked for consideration of concurrent and simultaneous processing. Therefore, I move that the Board directs staff to authorize concurrent and simultaneous processing of a site plan, architectural drawings, and any and other drawings as may be necessary in conjunction with RZ 2024-DR-406.

[02:30:43] This motion should not be construed as a favorable recommendation by the Board on the proposed application. It does not relieve the applicant from compliance with the provisions of any applicable ordinances, regulations, or adopted standards. Second. And the Chair and Supervisor Alcorn will second that and not ask you to repeat the motion.

[02:31:02] Is there any discussion, any further discussion on the motion? I could use a glass of water. Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Beerman. Just one brief announcement.

[02:31:18] I am doing a series of fall town halls, the first of which is September 2nd at the McLean Community Center in McLean. We will then be doing one on October 9th at the Herndon Fort Knightley Library in Herndon, and then one on November 13th at the Great Falls Grange in Great Falls.

[02:31:35] Thank you. Excellent. Thank you very much, Supervisor Beerman. And next up, I have Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll start with my first announcement. It is regarding the Springfield Bridge Walk. On July 15, 2025, I introduced a board matter informing the community and my colleagues that the Springfield Bridgewalk is scheduled for this coming Saturday, August 30th at 10 a.m.

[02:32:00] This announcement is just a friendly reminder that you are all welcome to join me and members of the Franconia Springfield community as we walk over Veterans Bridge, located in the heart of central Springfield's business area. Following the Bridgewalk, a community celebration will take place at the American Legion Post 176.

[02:32:20] The celebration will feature entertainment, refreshments, participation from community groups and local businesses, and much, much more. So you'll notice there's an attachment with some more details if you're so inclined. We'd love to have you. Second, Mr. Chairman, I'm really, really excited about this one.

[02:32:37] I noticed that the Accelerate Breakfast program of this board wins a 2025 Achievement Award by the Virginia Association of Counties. And, again, the Fairfax County Board launched the Accelerated Breakfast Program in April of 2024, drawing inspiration from what was formerly called the Grub State Breakfast, which ran in partnership with George Mason University from 1988 to 2012.

[02:33:06] In May of 2023, I introduced a board matter with Supervisor Alcorn calling for the revival of the Grub State Breakfast concept. I was pleased that the Board of Supervisors approved the funding for this initiative. This quarterly breakfast exemplifies regional cooperation, bringing together Fairfax County, Arlington County, Prince William County, and George Mason University.

[02:33:31] It connects promising early-stage companies that are technology-focused with investors in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Since its inception, participating startups have collectively raised nearly $20 million in funding. The program encourages applications from founders traditionally underrepresented in early-stage investment.

[02:33:52] And again, the participants benefit from professional pitch coaching and valuable networking opportunities. And all of this is offered at no cost to them. I thought this was something duly to note. And then second, I also noticed that Fire and EMS Pharmacy was a winner of the Virginia Association of Counties Achievement Award.

[02:34:15] And again, just excited to recognize them for this achievement as well. In 2024, Fairfax County launched the fire and EMS pharmacy to modernize the storage tracking and distribution of emergency medications, the first of its kind in northern Virginia.

[02:34:33] The pharmacy uses a hub and spoke model anchored at public safety headquarters and supported by 11 fire stations that serve as the spokes for operational field units. And again, key operational improvements include real-time dashboards to track exploration timelines and usage trends, comprehensive inventory tracking, and data-informed decision-making to anticipate future needs.

[02:34:59] And by centralizing procurement and optimizing inventory management, the program has significantly reduced medication waste and yielded measurable cost savings for the agency. The pharmacy is also integrated with the department's community response team, CRT, enhancing outreach and field readiness during behavioral health and public health emergencies.

[02:35:21] More than a local success story, this program is a scalable model for others across the Commonwealth. So just wanted to acknowledge that. And Supervisor Lusk, before you move in, move on very briefly, because I know half of the board is on the VACO board.

[02:35:36] So Supervisor Stork, Palchuk, myself, Supervisor Smith, Supervisor Walkinshaw, who helped play a role in these FACO awards. And I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge all the award winners, not just the two that we just heard.

[02:35:51] And most importantly, the staff behind submitting the applications who did the work in describing these programs. And so, as you mentioned, the Accelerate Breakfast series in which the application was put in by our own director of DEI, Rebecca Mowdry.

[02:36:07] Congratulations to her and her team. And related to that, we also got a VACO Achievement Award for Talent Up Fairfax, which has empowered hundreds of Fairfax County job seekers by connecting them with paid internships, career coaching, and long-term employment opportunities.

[02:36:23] And that application was also submitted by Rebecca Mowdry from Department of Economic Initiatives. You mentioned the fire and rescue pharmacy one. That was submitted by Deputy Chief Rocco Alvaro, who's Deputy Chief of Emergency Medical Services Operations for FRD.

[02:36:43] And then finally, and the one that I personally was the most proud of seeing on here, especially in light of some of the conversation we had this morning, was the Fair Ridge Shelter, which, of course, was a former extended-stay hotel and is now providing needed shelter to families experiencing homelessness.

[02:37:01] And a number of us that was out there to tour it with Supervisor Smith and Supervisor Powchick. Recently, the phenomenal work that our Department of Housing did in that conversion and that nomination was submitted by our director of Department of Housing and Community Development, Tom Fleetwood.

[02:37:20] And so we won four of these VACO Achievement Awards and want to personally also thank, as I did in my newsletter, the four people who submitted those, but also all the staff that are behind these initiatives. They're not just ideas that come out of nowhere and then go nowhere. There's a ton, there's an army of dedicated county workers, staff behind each of these things, and we got four of these awards. We usually do get VACO achievement awards, and it's part of the reason why a lot of us spend a lot of time on our VACO work, is making sure that

[02:37:54] we've built the relationships on VACO to make sure that our extraordinary county services get recognized at a statewide level, and so I just want to make sure we share that as well. Supervisor Lusk. No, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'll be frank in saying I didn't include the other two because I thought I had too many requests here, so I was trying to curtail it, so I apologize for that.

[02:38:16] But not to say I wasn't also impressed with the awards from the others as well. And the next, Mr. Chairman, I just want to acknowledge Poinonia United Community for some food distributions that they did in our district. I just want to say that they've really stepped up to help us provide for the families along the Richmond Highway corridor who've had some pretty significant needs and many impacted by some of the decisions that are being made at the federal level, unfortunately, as well.

[02:38:48] So I just wanted to thank them for the amazing work that they're doing to provide assistance to hundreds and the QAnonias instance, thousands of families that are in our area.

[02:39:03] And then next, Mr. Chairman, on the WISH Entrepreneurship Program, I want to thank Supervisor Bierman for his coming out to tour the WISH Center. He got to see it after the program had completed for building trades.

[02:39:25] We're about to initiate a new program, which I want to acknowledge again, connected to George Mason University. The Costello School of Business has been working with the WISH Center to host what will end up being a free entrepreneurship boot camp and mentoring program for residents in the community who have recently started a business or are aspiring to start a business.

[02:39:49] So the goal of the WISH program is to provide participants with the skills to start, build, grow, and operate their own businesses. There will be a series of five information sessions that have been scheduled for our residents to learn more about this free entrepreneurship program.

[02:40:06] And you'll note there's a flyer that includes those specific dates. And the first session will actually be held this evening from 6.30 p.m. until 8.30 p.m. at the WISH Center at the High Blue Valley Community Center.

[02:40:25] And you'll see the flyer attached provides more information for those who might be interested. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I will conclude my board matters. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. And next up is Supervisor Alcorn.

[02:40:40] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have two board matters. I'm going to flip the order and do the cleanup one first. The first one relates to the barns at Wolf Trap. And as the board may remember, on July 15th, the board granted the applicant's request for concurrent processing of a site plan.

[02:40:56] To enable the performance venue to continue operating efficiently and successfully, the applicant also requests expedited processing for the Special Exception Amendment, which is scheduled for a public hearing before the Planning Commission on November 19, 2025. So, therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board direct staff to schedule the Board public hearing for SEA 82-C-027-002 on December 9, 2025.

[02:41:22] And, as usual, this motion should not be construed as a favorable recommendation by the board on the proposed application. It does not relieve the applicant from compliance with the provisions of any applicable ordinances, regulations, or adopted standards. Chair, we'll second that along with Supervisor Smith.

[02:41:38] Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Alcorn. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. This is a board matter with you and Vice Chair Smith, and frankly, a whole bunch of other folks probably would have signed on to this if I got my act together earlier.

[02:41:59] But as the board is aware, staff presented a proposal to initiate the state-mandated five-year process to determine whether Fairfax County should implement a unified sanitation district, or USD, for our single-family residential customers. Since that time, there have been a lot of questions and concerns raised in the community, much of which has been based on inaccurate or incomplete information.

[02:42:22] While the purpose of considering a USD is both to provide our single-family residents with better and more efficient service and to achieve county environmental goals, there may be options within a modified USD approach or within non-USD options that could achieve similar goals.

[02:42:41] After talking with many of you one-on-one, no... meetings out of turn, and many residents, we have concluded it is in the best interests of all concerned, including the residents and the haulers, that we evaluate our options prior to initiating the five-year period, with the understanding that the five-year period will allow for continued analysis and corrections.

[02:43:02] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the staff develop potential options, including pros and cons of each option, conduct a public forum among staff, licensed haulers, and homeowners association representatives managing hauler contracts on behalf of their residents with the goal of reaching agreement on the facts associated with the options and develop a process for board consideration and ultimate implementation of each.

[02:43:30] I further move that we not hold a public hearing on this matter until the above tasks are completed and viable options are vetted with the board. I'm happy to second that motion along with Supervisor Smith and a whole lot of others. Discussion on the motion, Supervisor Alcorn.

[02:43:47] Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. There's not a lot more local government than trash collection, although our role in Fairfax County for many of our residents is more of a regulatory one, not an operational one. And I know we've heard a lot of things on this issue from our residents and others.

[02:44:05] You know, I've gotten requests from the Reston Association for Greater Reston to be a sanitary district. You know, I had my town hall recently, and I had people outside of Hunter Mills showing up and talking about this issue.

[02:44:21] So there's been a lot of discussion out there. We are subject to that five-year waiting period. That's in state law. Really, the question has been, do we try to figure out the high-level approach before we start the five-year waiting period, or do we do that during the five-year waiting period?

[02:44:42] I think what, at least I've come to the conclusion, is we need to figure more of that out before the five-year waiting period starts, based on some of the discussion that's happened in the community. I do just very briefly want to touch on a couple things.

[02:45:00] sort of reminding each other why we're looking at this. And, you know, it's not going to come as a surprise to us, but our system isn't perfect. We have areas where it could be better in terms of our trash, our recycling, our composting services.

[02:45:20] And just a couple of those examples. If you live in a single-family detached home, a traditional suburban neighborhood in Fairfax County, and you don't have a homeowner's association contracting for you, then you're on your own. To me, it's the Wild West out there for folks in that situation.

[02:45:41] And as a result of that, we have neighborhoods where we have two or sometimes three different haulers going through the neighborhoods collecting trash and recycling. So for this part, for these residents, what we basically have is a retail market.

[02:45:58] for trash collection and recycling collection. And those customers are paying retail prices. And I realize that if you do live in an area where you have an association working on your behalf, you may be paying a wholesale-type price instead of a retail price.

[02:46:15] But still, we have all those folks that are paying retail prices. And this really became-- some of the fault lines, I'll call it in our system, really became apparent during the pandemic, because we had a situation, and we were all getting calls in our offices, where they weren't getting service, and they had very little recourse, because it's a retail market, and at the time, there really weren't a lot of good options.

[02:46:42] Now, services have improved, absolutely. We've seen that, and the retail private hauler systems have improved their levels, but it was visible in terms of those fault lines in the system for all to see back then.

[02:46:59] So, and I think for me anyway, why I have supported looking at this and moving in some direction along these lines is we do need, and our residents need, a simpler and more efficient system.

[02:47:15] So, and I'll just remind the board too, we have environmental challenges. You know, we have, we're trying to reduce waste. You know, we're trying to facilitate recycling in a time of changes in global recycling markets. And then a big one out there that we're just starting to figure out is composting.

[02:47:33] You know, how is that going to work? So we have some significant environmental issues that we're trying to work through as well. So we're at this decision point. Do we go forward without really having much of a plan before the five-year waiting period starts, Or do we start the five-year period and then figure it out?

[02:47:53] I think at this point, I think hopefully we all agree that we need to do some more work. And to get a better plan or get a system for a better plan for our residents, we need to work on that before we start the five-year period.

[02:48:10] And I think this motion does that. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, thank you, Supervisor Alcorn, and thank you for coordinating this. It's the right motion. I think a lot of us are disappointed at this stage in a lot of things. I mean, one is there is this state law of a five-year waiting period that confused people.

[02:48:29] Most people have no idea that we're talking about something that could happen five years or more from now. They think it's like next week. Recently, I had a group of people approach me at a chamber thing and ask me why the county wanted to collect everyone's trash, because they heard about the county takeover.

[02:48:47] And I said, the county doesn't want to collect your trash, trust me. And there is no takeover. And so there's been all this terminology used by folks who, you know, have really forcefully entered the conversation.

[02:49:02] And I respect that, that they need to protect their own interests. But as a result of that, there's a lot of misinformation. And while I'm supporting this because, you know, people before you enter something want to know, well, what is it more detailed that we're really talking about here?

[02:49:19] I will say the risk for a future board five or more years from now is you may be rewriting the whole plan by then. Because what we could pursue now, what we'd be talking about doing now, is five years away. And what we've seen is major changes in this industry over the last five years.

[02:49:39] We wouldn't put forward something today that would be identical to what we would have been talking about five years ago. And so the state-mandated period becomes a challenge here, whether you put forward a very definitive plan now, recognizing that that's what the public is hearing and not knowing what could possibly happen five years from now, or whether you entertain that conversation through the course of the five-year period.

[02:50:06] I actually think the latter was what the intention was with the General Assembly when that was established. But because of the amount of information that's out there, and I am disappointed in how much of it is not true. But that being said, that's the world that we live in.

[02:50:22] And we need to take the time to clarify some of these things with the public a little bit better. And so I support no public hearing at this point until we can come back with a more detailed plan that shares a lot of things you just shared, because I don't think a lot of people know that, and to take the time to do this right.

[02:50:43] But understanding that a decision about this is five years or more away. There'll be a different board sitting here, and there'll be a different public taking these services that may have a different opinion about what it is we're talking about now.

[02:50:59] And so I just want to be really transparent with people that that is the situation that we're dealing with, and that is the reason why I'm supporting this motion. And I know we'll all work with staff as we move forward on getting our input into what are some conceivable plans that we're talking about.

[02:51:19] And I see a lot of hands, so remember what we're doing here is we're not holding a public hearing. We're still required to have a five-year period. Every member of this board will have five years at least to opine on this issue. So take that into consideration before you speak.

[02:51:36] Supervisor Arity. And I'll try to be real quick. First, thank Supervisor Alcorn for bringing this forward. You know, when we talk about recovery of trash services, it's our county services needed to recover, too. So it was not just the private sector that needed to recover.

[02:51:54] I think what our residents really were worried about and our haulers were what was it really going to look like and the impact in this five years and then the impact after the five years, and we didn't really have a lot to tell them. So I'm happy we're taking the time to be transparent.

[02:52:12] As the only supervisor on the dais who voted against advertising this thing in the first place, because it wasn't ready for prime time, I'm glad we're taking the time to go back and put meat around the bone so our residents understand what we're planning to do. And you are entirely right with the – I like the retail versus wholesale because the ones we're trying to fix are those.

[02:52:36] And unfortunately, I've asked the question, and I'd love if we could find out what the answer is. I'm told we can't do it. How many of our residents are served by HOAs and how many are not? So we understand the impact of that problem, and I don't know how we get there, but hopefully we get there as a part of this process.

[02:52:54] But thank you again for bringing us, and I'll be supporting it. Supervisor Walkinshaw, I saw first, so we'll go around. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to support the board matter. I want to start, you know, first of all, just thank our staff, Matt Adams and others in Solid Waste.

[02:53:11] A lot of time and effort and work and engagement with the community has gone into getting us to this point. And if there needs to be more work and more engagement, I think that's great. You know, a couple of things that I just want to point out based on what I've heard.

[02:53:30] I think it's important to remind ourselves of the history here. And it's not just that the quality of service from our private haulers declined during and post-COVID. And folks here on this board longer than me should recall that it's almost like, I don't know, what is a cicada cycle?

[02:53:52] many years shorter than seven oh okay much shorter than that yeah it's almost every five years in this county yeah and when i started this job and talked to my predecessor supervisor cook who went through 2017 and 2018 terrible service from the private haulers had nothing to do with covid there was no pandemic the industry goes in cycles there are cycles of consolidation and our residents suffer. And it's happened every five years for decades. We happen to be right now on the upside of that cycle. I'm here to tell you, we will be on the downside of that cycle again, if we do not

[02:54:29] reform this system. So if we need to take a little bit more time to look at it, I think that's great. You know, Supervisor Herdy, I've been quiet on this. You pointed out you're the only supervisor who voted against advertising, you're also the only supervisor whose position has flip-flopped on this issue. Because we discussed this many times at environmental committee meetings. And you were one of the most vocal supporters. And I went back and watched the tape. You said, and this is exact

[02:55:02] quote, we absolutely should do this with respect to residential. Now, I respect positions change, but I think you should be honest with folks that your position has changed on this issue. And I haven't heard you do that with the public or here at this dais. You know, a lot of good stuff has been said about the opportunity we have to improve our processes. For me, and I've had plenty of meetings with haulers, good meetings, not so good meetings with haulers. I don't represent trash

[02:55:37] haulers. I want every business in the county to succeed and thrive. I represent 130,000 people in the Braddock district. My job is to get them the best service I can get them. And historically, on a roughly every five-year cycle, we have not had that under the current system. So, you know, I hope we will continue to press forward. I think it's prudent to get more information to address some of the information that's been put out there publicly, but we cannot allow for that down cycle of service for our residents to come back and it is coming it will come thank you and before i turn

[02:56:17] to the next one i just want to add to that that you know what we're asking staff to do is you know take this pause um but to develop a proposal um as i said earlier you know five years is a long time from now this is a proposal we're asking them to come back with a proposal if the public believes we're going to be able to answer every single question of exactly what is going to happen five years from now. We need to be realistic with them and stop that. Because, yeah, the rest of us voted to authorize a public hearing because this is a conversation we need to have. We can bury

[02:56:53] our head in the sand and walk away like there's no problems. But we know our residents know there's a lot of problems, as Supervisor Walkinshaw just mentioned. So the easy political thing to do is bury your head in the sand and walk away from it. The harder thing is to have this conversation with the community. That's why we authorized the public hearing, to have that conversation.

[02:57:15] Unfortunately, pieces of it have been hijacked into a different narrative, and our staff, despite all of their hard work and answering a lot of questions, has not been able to convince some people in the community that we are looking at every detail of this. But the frustration that they can't answer every question, we have to be real about. We're talking about something that could happen in 2031. So we need to be realistic at the same time we're causing this delay to have this conversation. Others who would like to be recognized, Supervisor Beerman. Thank you, Mr.

[02:57:54] Chairman, and thank you, Supervisor Alcorn, for bringing this board matter. I wholeheartedly support it. I think that we need to take more time to be able to present residents who are looking at something that would be a disruption in the status quo, we need to be able to present them with more information about what that could look like and what the next steps would be.

[02:58:17] I think that we did not do a great job of coming up with multiple scenarios and being able to present that to residents. And if I had to offer one thing that I want to make sure happens when this proposal is brought back to us. It's an actual timeline and a work plan. So I held a town hall, and one of the questions that admittedly got my dander up was when somebody asked something along the lines of, so game out, if we take this vote and we start the five-year clock, what does the next

[02:58:56] year look like? And the answer was not great. I mean, there wasn't much information about steps there all that being said and and again i think that we need to create a menu of options uh you know no we we're not going to be able to answer every question but we need to sort of have some scenarios and some possibilities and yes keeping in mind what chairman mckay just said about how we'll have five years to talk about this i do want to just point out a few things uh uh about

[02:59:33] this situation and why it's been difficult uh chairman mckay said that he thought the legislature thought about a five-year period so you would have more time to reason to part yeah he changed he just said part of the reason his mic wasn't on because i've had a hauler sit in my office and say no no they did that they did that so you will never be able to achieve this and he goes he goes we did that he said we did that he said my parents helped write that bill so that if you ever tried to do this, we'd vote you all out. I don't really like that type of threat in my office, but you

[03:00:11] know, it's kind of funny now. But look, that is absolutely true. That five-year waiting period is an incumbent protection opportunity, and we shouldn't forget that. The second thing is, you know, I do want to make sure that when we go through this process, we recognize that the fault lines in the process are probably much more, uh, in truth, uh, based on status quo and not status quo than ideological. If I went to the town of Herndon right now, where by the way, the town of

[03:00:50] Herndon has town of Herndon trash pickup. And I walked around town and I said, you know, we're doing away with town of Herndon trash pickup. Everything's privatized. It's all going to be private haulers. I guarantee you that there would be some folks with Winsome Sears signs in their yard who would tell me, how could you do that? How could you do that? This is a core government function. Similarly, you can walk around McLean or Great Falls. Somebody's got an Abigail Spanberger side in their yard, and they'll say, how could you do that? Why are you having the

[03:01:21] government take this over? So I think we should recognize that going into this and try to recognize that ultimately this is about, I believe, about two things for our residents. One is the most central thing. How do we make sure they're getting a better deal? Period. You know, James represents 130,000 in the Braddock District, 130,000 in Drainsville, 130,000. Are they getting a better deal? And look, there is also a second component of this, which is we know that the way that we

[03:01:59] collect trash, the way that we process trash, the way that we deal with trash, the way that we recycle does have broader environmental effects and we want this county to be around for our kids our grandkids our great-grandkids you name it so we got to ask those two questions are we sure that our residents are getting a better deal and are we getting ultimately a better deal for this county and the environment which by the way i've also had the exact same private haulers sit in my office and say what you think you can do with this we can actually do without it so great let's have

[03:02:37] that conversation let's figure it out so i support this motion when it does come back i hope that we have a menu of options i hope we have a timeline i hope we have a work plan um and i look forward to hearing from county staff thank you thank you very much um a lot's been said um i don't know that anybody else needs to say anything, but let me check. Okay.

[03:03:02] The motion has been moved and seconded. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Alcorn. I'm almost going to say that is all, but I do want to just point out one thing. We're not talking about changing the town's trash collection.

[03:03:21] All right? Yeah, that's right. Because I have one of those towns too. Yes, you got it. I don't want to make news on that one. It was a hypothetical. It was a hypothetical. Hypothetical only. So that's all. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Yeah, that's right. Supervisor Jimenez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[03:03:39] Coming back to the Daughters of the American Revolution, I have two board matters. We're going to start with the Daughters, a proclamation that is a joint board matter with you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, each year, September 17th marks the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787.

[03:03:57] This foundational document established the framework of our government and the rights and freedoms we continue to cherish today. The observance of Constitutional Week was officially declared by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 2nd, 1956.

[03:04:13] The celebration has three core goals. To encourage the study of the historical events that led to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787. To remind the public that the Constitution is the basis of America's great heritage and the foundation for its way of life and to emphasize U.S. citizens' responsibility to protect, defend, and preserve the United States Constitution.

[03:04:37] The Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR, a nonpolitical volunteer women's service organization, has historically supported the observance of Constitution Week through educational outreach, historical preservation, and civic engagement. They have requested that the board join in this recognition.

[03:04:56] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that a proclamation be prepared to designate September 17, 23, 2025 as a constitutional week in Fairfax County in recognition of the enduring importance of the United States Constitution and in honor of its 238th anniversary.

[03:05:17] The proclamation may be presented either in the boardroom or in coordination with representatives of the DAR outside of the boardroom. And Chair will second that. Is there any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Jimenez.

[03:05:35] Mr. Chairman, I have one more board matter, and then we can continue to move forward. Mr. Chairman, Fairfax County continues to be shaped and enriched by the contributions of the Korean American community whose civic, cultural, and economic presence is deeply rooted in the fabric of our region.

[03:05:53] In recognition of these lasting contributions and following strong community engagement, there is a broad support for establishing an honorary road naming to commemorate the Korean community's role in the county's history and identity. While an initial proposal considered Little River Turnpike from Humber Road to Evergreen Road, community feedback encouraged identifying a corridor of more appropriate context.

[03:06:18] As a result, a portion of John Marr drive specifically from Little River Turnpike Route 236 to Columbia Pike Route 244 has emerged as a fitting location for this designation, reflecting the Korean community's deep connection to this area. The community has selected the name Seoul Boulevard for this honorary designation, honoring the capital city of South Korea and symbolizing the enduring pride, heritage, and contributions of Korean Americans in Fairfax County.

[03:06:47] Fairfax County wishes to request the honorary naming of this portion of John Marr Drive, Route 2948, as Soul Boulevard, and in accordance with 33.2-213 of the Virginia Code of Virginia, affirms that the county will be responsible for the cost of producing, installing, and maintaining any signage related to the designation to allow for timely review by the Commonwealth Transportation Board, the CTB.

[03:07:15] At its September 17th meeting, the board matter requesting a resolution must be submitted and adopted by August 27th. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the board approve and adopt a resolution to be prepared by staff requesting the honorary naming of the portion of John Marr Drive, Route 2948 from Little River Turnpike, Route 236 to Columbia Pike, Route 244 as Sol Boulevard.

[03:07:40] And the chair will second that motion along with Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Jimenez. That is it for me today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[03:07:57] Thank you very much. Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have just one matter. I'm going to shorten it a little bit. This is our 10th annual tour to Mount Vernon. It's that time of year, much anticipated. We'll be holding it on October 18th. We're celebrating our 10th anniversary ride.

[03:08:15] This milestone year's scenic adventure will take us through the northern and central portions of the Mount Vernon district, beginning and ending at the beautiful Woodlawn and Pope Leigh House. Again, this year there will be a 20-mile short ride and a 40-mile long ride, and we invite all riders at all levels to join us.

[03:08:32] This event continues to grow with the help of our partners, partners FAB, Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary year as well. A key focus of the ride is to encourage community members and visitors to explore the many treasures and hidden gems of Potomac Banks Explorer Fairfax South.

[03:08:54] After the ride, riders and volunteers will gather for camaraderie, music, and La Prima's famous Sweet Potato Chili. We encourage you all to register by September 5th to achieve or get an early bird discount, as well as a limited edition, limited edition now, 10th anniversary tie-dye tour to Mount Vernon Socks.

[03:09:14] Additional information in the registration portals can be found by visiting the Mount Vernon District webpage. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask with unanimous consent that the Board direct the Office of Public Affairs to publicize the 2025 tour to Mount Vernon. And without objection, that is so ordered.

[03:09:30] Always a fun event. So looking forward to it. My pleasure. Thank you for coming. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Supervisor Stork. And next up is Supervisor Palczyk. Thank you. Firstly, through Supervisor Stork, hopefully e-bikes are allowed because I could do it now with my used e-bike.

[03:09:46] E-bikes are always welcome. You bet. Absolutely. So you might see me there this time. To that, I also have three all very friendly and easy board matters, so I will try to accelerate them. The first one is to celebrate our second annual Providence Day and back-to-school celebration.

[03:10:03] We are thrilled to invite the community once again to Marshall High School on Saturday, September 20th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. We have partnered with school board member Frisch, Celebrate Fairfax, a neighborhood and community services to celebrate our vibrant and very diverse community here, especially in the heart of Fairfax County.

[03:10:24] Marshall High School, as many of you know, very easily accessible by car, bus, bike, shuttle services, though, will also be provided from several Providence District communities. We're excited for many giveaways, including from our first annual back to school supply giveaway and entertainment from our very own Drew Blue Shoes and the Vienna Singing Princesses, along with other local performers and the very, very popular touch of trucks, including the Polisa Seatbelt Convincer.

[03:10:56] If you haven't used it, highly recommend it. It will definitely convince you to use a seatbelt. our patrol cars, fire trucks, and electric school bus. This is a free family-friendly event with local organizations and businesses and several partners that are helping make this happen.

[03:11:15] And for more information, you can reach it at fairfaxcounty.gov slash providence. And we will also have a community spotlight award ceremony to highlight many of our community members. I believe the chairman has confirmed to join us, invite all of my colleagues. It was a fun time.

[03:11:31] We'll make sure it's up on the public agenda for all of our events. Please stop on by and join us. Especially if you've got some little ones, they will have a lot of fun. So hopefully I move without objection that OPA help us publicize this through their channels.

[03:11:47] And without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you. And this one, as I mentioned earlier, is our back-to-school supply drive, and the supplies will be given at this event. Right now, we just really want to thank our members who have partnered with us to collect supplies.

[03:12:06] I believe some of the boxes are already full, and so we appreciate those in our community who are supporting this, including Leadership Fairfax, the Down Lowering Fire Station, Celebrate Fairfax, Oakmont Rec Center, and our beloved Settle Down Easy Brewing at both ends of the district.

[03:12:24] I believe they have the Okta Box and the False Church Box. And, of course, not to mention the Jim Scott Community Center. So this will be ongoing until, well, September 5th with those drop-off locations and more information is available, again, on our website.

[03:12:41] So I also move without objection to ask support of Office of Public Affairs and the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services to help continue to promote this through the channels. And without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Palczyk.

[03:12:56] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And lastly, and I'm sitting here thinking maybe in the future we just have a place for all of these flyers and announcements for events. But this is, again, a request to help publicize the Coalition for Smarter Growth fault line screening, which will be held on Sunday, September 7th at the Angelica Theater and Mosaic.

[03:13:16] The chairman will be one of the panelists. I will be helping host the event along with Senator Salim. And the Coalition for Smarter Groves is bringing to us a documentary and a panel discussion and social hour about housing and the homelessness crisis, really highlighting in San Francisco.

[03:13:35] But as we know, unfortunately, we are facing that crisis here today in Fairfax County. Many themes that will resonate strongly with our community. I just want to share, as many of you probably know, hopefully are aware, the Housing and neighborhood livability dashboard in 2023 said that 28 percent of households in Fairfax were cost burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. 11.9 percent were severely rent burdened, spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing. We know the chairman is working in a board matter and many of us see this every single day. It impacts our community and

[03:14:13] definitely not to mention now hearing very much from our business community as well. It is even more pronounced among renters, 43.8% are cost burdened and 19.7% severely so. According to a very recent YouGov poll released last week, 73% of Virginians agree that there is not enough affordable housing in our Commonwealth. In a plurality of voters, 37% listed the cost and availability of housing as their most important issue. So this to me is a documentary I have pre-screened, it really shows a life story,

[03:14:50] personalizes the impact of policies of local decision maker and of our communities to come together and help resolve this. It includes people looking for housing, community members, labor community, and the business community.

[03:15:06] So we'll go ahead and also move without objection that we direct and ask for help, support from the Office of Public Affairs to help publicize this event on its appropriate channels. And without objection, that is so ordered.

[03:15:22] That is all, Mr. Chairman. Welcome back to school, everyone. Stay safe out there. Remember to stop for the school buses. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up is Supervisor Herity. Yes, Mr. Chairman. The first board matters to get some transportation-- transfer station fee waiver information.

[03:15:43] Our Department of Public Works and Environmental Services does a great job of promoting opportunities for residents to get involved in litter cleanup in our community, including Operation Stream Shield, coordinating litter cleanups with Virginia Department of Transportation, promoting organized litter cleanups in our parks, amongst others.

[03:16:02] While these formalized efforts are helpful, in some cases my office has seen inflexible regulations stymie the spontaneous efforts of everyday citizens to clean up our parks and communities. Given the critical need for park maintenance, we should be utilizing any opportunity to allow residents to volunteer their time and effort to clean up our parks.

[03:16:22] At Huntsman Park two weeks ago, a resident noticed tires dumped on the property and attempted to collect and dispose of them. Upon their attempts to dispose of them at the I-66 transfer station, they were presented with a mandatory fee to be paid per tire. Unaware of the steep fees, The resident was very frustrated that their attempt to help clean up a local park was met with a significant unexpected cost.

[03:16:47] This occurred a few minutes before 5 o'clock p.m. when the transfer station closed, and they called our office. Fortunately, Chris Harrington, who is here, personally went out to assist the residents, and my office arranged the cost of covering the fees to get the tires dumped.

[03:17:05] While I'm grateful we could resolve this situation, A resident should be able to clean up their local parks as a good Samaritan and not have to go through the burden of paying the costly transfers fees associated with it. In Fairfax County, our residents and business care deeply about the appearance of our community and actively participate in volunteer litter cleanups like the Greatest American Cleanup.

[03:17:27] Fairfax County should have the means to help our residents who wish to voluntary pick up litter and debris, especially at our local parks, and take it to transfer stations at no cost to them. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection, the board direct the county executive to evaluate and report back to the board on whether Department of Public Works and Environment Services has the ability to waive transfer station tipping fees in specific circumstances that staff determine are for a public good.

[03:17:59] And to my board members, I'm happy to amend this anyway. I just think we need to look at a way that we can allow our residents to clean up and dispose of things without having to bear the burden of those costs. But I'll leave my motion as it is for now. So moved. I'm happy.

[03:18:17] Without objection. Without objection. I mean, this is a report for staff to come back. I would just say I think there's a lot of questions with this, you know, from my standpoint, including what the fiscal impact is. Because obviously, if we do this, then the cost for people to drop off stuff, everyone else is going to go up to cover the expense of this program.

[03:18:39] And so having just been down there myself to the dump, I think, two or three weekends ago with a bunch of household goods, it was delightful because as residents of the county, there's so many things you can recycle for free already. And so I think we need to look at this, but obviously not absent the fiscal impact and some of the unintended consequences that may come as a result of it.

[03:19:05] And so we'll wait to see what comes back, but we need to look at that holistically. Supervisor Palchuk. If I may provide, it sounded like you're open to friendly amendments, I think the descriptiveness of the request, you know, I'm not just worried about the fiscal impact, but just the operational impact of how we would make sure that it doesn't get taken advantage of, right?

[03:19:26] So I know I am, for the first time in my life, on county pickup, and we have five free pickups a year. So I just think maybe having that open to look at what are the options, right, and what would not create unintended consequences that would, fiscal or otherwise, make it more difficult to run the operation.

[03:19:46] Very friendly amendment. Yeah, and I think also looking at making sure this is for county residents or, you know, businesses that, you know, it's one of the unintended consequences is our locations are close to other jurisdictions, and so we just need to be cognizant of that as well. And probably the biggest unintended consequences, the guy who takes four tires off his cars and said he picks them up from the park.

[03:20:07] That is an obvious one, too. I get that, too. So it's not an easy thing, I'm asking the county executive to look at. Yeah, and I think, you know, armed with all those challenges, we'll wait to see what comes back. But without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Herdy.

[03:20:23] All right. The second one is on the Chesterfield Energy Reliable Center and the State Corporation Commission hearing. Fairfax County regularly represents our citizens before the State Corporation Commission's at utility rate hearings. The Virginia Electric and Power Company, also known as Dominion Energy, is currently going through two processes that both attempt to raise the electrical rates residents must pay and increases the cost, the Commonwealth's ability to provide dispatchable energy to its residents.

[03:20:54] Dispatchable energy, for those that don't know, is energy that's available all the time, day, evening, et cetera, to meet needs. Since April 2020, when the Virginia Clean Economy Act was passed, the demand for electricity has soared because of economic growth and data center demand, while production of dispatchable energy has dropped under the Virginia Clean Economy Act requirements, including the closure of two production facilities.

[03:21:21] As a result, Virginia has become the number one importer of electricity in the country. Reported electricity is not only more expensive, but also typically less green than electricity produced in Virginia. We have a responsibility as a board and to our constituents to do what we can to improve their quality of life, and that includes advocating for infrastructure that will not actively increase the high cost of electricity they already pay.

[03:21:51] That is why the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center would be such a vital resource, not just for the county but the Commonwealth, to increase the reliability of our electrical grid in Virginia as well as to lower the cost burden we place on importing electricity from other states, which can be up to 10% more expensive.

[03:22:11] The Chester Field Energy Reliability Center will act as an always-ready generation source to be turned on and off in as little as 10 minutes, serving as a backup resource in times of need that become increasingly more frequent. This center will be cleaner than the retired coal units previously used at Chesterfield Power Station.

[03:22:30] With this project, Virginia will be taking a step in the right direction towards increasing its reliance on cost, less reliability out-of-state energy producers, and will increase the ability of residents and businesses to operate in a safer, more efficient, and cheaper electrical grid.

[03:22:46] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection, the board discuss weighing in on the State Corporation Commission on these decisions, including the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center either at an upcoming board committee meeting or at December December 9th board meeting I think this probably needs a vote I don't know that it's without objection I realize it's a presentation request to the board supervisor I'll make a motion yeah I think we need to do it as a motion okay so why don't you why don't you restate

[03:23:23] your motion. Okay. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask that the board discuss weighing in with the State Corporation Commission on these decisions, including the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center, either at an upcoming board committee meeting or at the September 9th board meeting, realizing this is duped to the SEC, I believe, by the 12th. Comments were due. So moved.

[03:23:51] You've heard the motion. Is there a second? So that motion dies without a second. Supervisor Harrity was at the end of your board matters oh no I got I got a few more okay a few more things floor is yours all right the next one I'll summarize advertising drug take back day in Fairfax County the simple message to the three paragraphs is while overdose deaths in the county have thankfully decreased in the last year it's it's critically important to continue our efforts of getting unused medicines out of the office because it's still the

[03:24:28] number one cause of unnatural death in the county. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, without objection, I ask we direct the Office of Public Affairs to continue work with FCPD to advertise this upcoming National Drug Take Back Day in the event locations within the county. I also ask that we declare October 25th as Drug Take Back Day in Fairfax County. And without objection, that is so ordered.

[03:24:55] Supervisor Ernie um didn't know what I was going to do this but I was asked to clarify my position on USD's when I said I supported doing stuff on USD's clearly supported looking at multiple trucks going through neighborhoods and I think supervisor Alcorn your resident of retail versus wholesale I think that is something we need to look at and I thought we were going to get more details as to how we were going to do that how many districts etc etc and that didn't come and there were no details which is why I went from trying to solve that problem which I think all our residents that live in those districts

[03:25:35] want to see solved because it makes no sense to be paying a little bit more have three trucks run through the neighborhood at three different schedules so you almost always have a truck running through the neighborhood anyway so that that is what I supported what we what we got back was as we've found out not enough in terms of not enough in terms of answers or a detailed plan with that my final piece will be an announcement we have extended free concerts in the park in the Springfield district for one additional Wednesday for

[03:26:12] a band that got rained out so gotcha covered band will be Burke Lake Park at 7:00 p.m. it's not on the schedules but wanted to make sure everybody knew I I lucked into beautiful weather this Wednesday. I only had one rain out, and this one's not going to be a rain out.

[03:26:28] So our regular Two Silos beer and Kona ice, as well as our food trucks, this week will be Bubuji and Kazaville hot dogs. But please consider coming out and joining us. Like I said, it's going to be great weather. They cover, I think it's 60s, 70s, 80s.

[03:26:46] Should be a fun time. Thanks. Thank you very much. And with that, we are going to move on to admin items. And let me ask Supervisor Smith if she has a motion to, and this is a correct motion, approve administrative items 1 through 21.

[03:27:02] I move approval of admin items 1 through 21. You've heard the motion. The chair and many others will second that. Are there any admin items board members have questions about or would like to pull for a separate vote? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of admin items 1 through 21, please say aye.

[03:27:20] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries, and that takes us to action items. Action item number one is approval of the FY2026 and FY2027 community services performance contract between the Fairfax Falls Church Community Services Board and the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and to accept FY2026 funding.

[03:27:46] And I'm going to turn the gavel over to Supervisor Smith just so that I can move approval of the county executive's recommendation. I will second that motion. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Mr. Chairman.

[03:28:03] Thank you, Supervisor Smith. Action item number two is approval to establish the Sleepy Hollow and Columbia Pike residential cut-through permit zones in the Mason District. Supervisor Jimenez. Mr. Chairman, I request that approval of this action item number two.

[03:28:22] You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by myself and Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of action two, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Action item number three is endorsement of design plans for the Braddock Road Multimodal Improvements Project in both the Braddock and Mason districts.

[03:28:47] Let me turn to Supervisor Walkinshaw to make the motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Move approval of the county executive's recommendation on Action Item 3. Been moved, seconded by Supervisor Jimenez and the chairman. Any discussion on the motion?

[03:29:04] Yes, Supervisor Walkinshaw. And I know it's been a long morning and we're at the last moment here, but I have to just say a couple of words about this. Obviously, this is, you know, by far the most significant transportation infrastructure project in the Braddock District in a long, long time.

[03:29:22] Probably since the last time there were improvements to the Braddock Road. And, you know, and we still have some steps to go in the process. But I want to thank a lot of folks who have helped us get to this point, starting with my predecessor, Supervisor Cook.

[03:29:39] Marsha Pape in my office, who worked on it for Supervisor Cook and has worked on it for me. FCDOT staff and VDOT staff, many, many, many, quite literally hundreds of community members who have participated on task forces and various meetings.

[03:29:57] We went back through all of the public engagement dating back to 2014, and we were able to identify 91 documented community meetings on this project. That doesn't include the smaller one-on-one meetings and the many times I've talked about it and FCDOT and VDOT have talked about it at various HOA meetings.

[03:30:21] A task force that Supervisor Cook stood up with representatives from each of the neighborhoods in the corridor met 30 times to develop basically the framework of the design that we are endorsing today.

[03:30:39] The fundamental elements of that haven't changed. It's not a widening project. It's a series of improvements to the interchanges with the addition of contiguous shared youth pass on both sides to replace the stopping and starting of existing pass that are in the corridor now.

[03:30:59] And look, it's a critical project if we don't do this project. And these numbers have been validated post-COVID. By 2045, we'll have a 30% increase in average intersection delays in this Braddock Road corridor and a 20% increase in travel time.

[03:31:18] And we will continue the very unsafe situation for pedestrians and bicyclists right now. And, you know, just to add some context and color to it, Right now on Braddock Road, to get to a lot of the bus stations, you've got to walk in the mud or on the shoulder of the road.

[03:31:38] And you have to play hopscotch across, in some cases, eight lanes of traffic across unsignalized crosswalks to get to and from those bus stops. And I appreciate former Supervisor Cook recognizing that something needed to be done, the incredible work that's been done on it.

[03:31:58] And, you know, throughout those meetings, as you do with this kind of project, you get feedback. And especially in the early meetings when I started, we got feedback and concerns about the impacts along the right of way, and especially tree preservation.

[03:32:14] And I'm really proud of the work that has been done. FC.VDOT, partnering with the community, the Braddock Land Use Committee, who, you know, has walked up and down tree by tree. We've been able to increase tree save within the VDOT right away by 70% from the original design.

[03:32:33] So real, real improvement. You know, we still have a ways to go. We've secured some smart scale funding for phase one, some NVTA funding for phase two, but we need to get at least one more tranche of funding to have the project fully funded, but I'm very confident that we will get there.

[03:32:52] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Walkinshaw. It is important for you to have said what you said. This is a big project, as you mentioned, and it's been being worked on for a very long time. And I certainly want to thank our staff and their partnership with VDOT on this. As you mentioned, phase one is fully funded with federal, state, smart scale money and local funding, or we wouldn't be here, and phase two is being worked on.

[03:33:19] But like many of these projects, it has evolved and improved through the community input process. And so thank you for all your years of work on that as well, because I know these are not easy. And without your leadership on that, who knows if this project would be going forward at all.

[03:33:36] And so this is an important moment. And as you rightfully point out, for pedestrians, this section of roadway, we've all driven it, we all see it, is really tough. And at a minimum, the pedestrian improvements here are a welcome relief for a lot of folks in that corridor and not to mention the roadway improvements.

[03:33:57] So I'm happy to support the motion. If there's not any further discussion, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. And before I turn to Vice Chair Smith for a motion to bring us into closed session, let me ask County Attorney how long we need for closed session.

[03:34:17] Mr. Chairman I estimate one hour and 45 minutes one hour and 45 minutes so that puts us at 1:45 Not a lot of time here. So if the board can report back at closed session at 1:45 Promptly so that we can begin closed session and with that I'm going to turn to Supervisor Smith for a motion Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors recess and go into closed session for discussion and consideration of matters enumerated in Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 and listed in the attached agenda for this meeting.

[03:34:56] And in addition, one, potential settlements with certain defendants in the National Opioid Multi-District Litigation and legal analysis of solid waste management matters, all is permitted by Virginia Code Sections 2.2-3711A, 7 and 8.

[03:35:12] And number two, appointment of a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals and annual evaluation of the county attorney, All is permitted by Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A1. Referred the motion. The chair will second that along with Supervisor Bierman.

[03:35:29] Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. The board will very briefly recess for lunch and report back at 1.45.

[03:37:03] The board is back.

[03:40:10] Having just completed closed session, at this time I'm going to turn to Supervisor Smith. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors certify that, to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements by virtue of Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which closed session was convened, were heard, discussed, or considered by the Board of Supervisors during the closed session.

[03:40:38] You've heard the motion. The Chair will second that, along with Supervisor Palczyk. I know we have a number of motions coming out of closed session. let me start with Supervisor Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Board of Supervisors adjust the county attorney's salary on the terms and conditions discussed in closed session.

[03:40:54] The chair will second that motion. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Other motions coming out of closed session? Oh, did we not? Ah, okay. All right. Then let's go back vote on the cleansing motion we did voted on a second all those in favor of the cleansing motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries we've settled the motion

[03:41:29] on the county attorney uh supervisor pouching okay i i have a motion it does have two sections to it i move that the board of supervisors approve and adopt the following resolutions a resolution of the fabrics county board of supervisors accepting the purdue pharma bankruptcy plan, and approving of the county's participation in the proposed direct settlement of opioid-related claims against the Sackler family, and directing the county's outside council to execute the documents necessary to accept the plan and effectuate the county's participation in the settlement, and a resolution of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors

[03:42:07] approving of the county's participation in the proposed settlement of opioid-related claims against Alvagen, Amnil, Apotex, Hikma, Indivior, Mylan, Sun, and Zytus, and their related corporate entities, and directing the county attorney and or the county's outside counsel to execute the documents necessary to effectuate the county's participation in the settlements.

[03:42:32] So moved. You've heard the motion. The chair will second that. Is there discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries, and I believe that was all of the motions.

[03:42:50] I believe there's one on the BZA appointment. Supervisor Smith has another motion. She did not get a copy of that. That was one we were supposed to have come back to us, yes. Thank you so much.

[03:43:06] That's why I asked the question. Supervisor Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Board of Supervisors concur in the appointment of Sean Pfeiffer to the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals. And the chair will second that motion along with Supervisor Palchuk. Discussion on the motion?

[03:43:22] Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. And that brings us to our public hearings this afternoon. And just a reminder for those in attendance and watching, individuals may provide testimony a number of different ways.

[03:43:41] They can testify here in person or they can provide testimony by phone or by YouTube video. At the designated point in the public hearing, I'll call for any speakers from the speakers list, and they will either come forward or their video will be shown or they will be connected by telephone. There will then be an opportunity for anyone else who would like to speak to the matter to come down to the podium or to call in at 703-324-1020. Speakers testifying by video must have signed up and submitted their video no later than 9 a.m. on the day prior to the hearing this afternoon. For public hearing testimony, you're given three minutes to speak as

[03:44:20] an individual. If you're a spokesperson for a group, you are given five minutes. And with that, I'm going to call our first afternoon public hearing, which is a public hearing on PCA 2016-HM-035-03, CDPA 2016-HM-035-03, Comstock Reston Station Holdings, and I understand this is being deferred in the 100 mil district. Supervisor Alcorn.

[03:44:51] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, because of, I believe, an advertising issue, I do move that the Board of Supervisors defer the public hearing scheduled for right now, August 26, 2025 for PCA slash CDPA 2016-HM-035-03 to a date certain of September 30th, 2025 at 3.30 p.m.

[03:45:18] Second. You've heard the motion and a second by Supervisor Palczyk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. And that brings us next to a public hearing on PCA 2016-HM-024, CRS Midline 1, LC, in the Hunter Middle District.

[03:45:44] And as soon as they are ready, could we please have the applicant reaffirm the affidavit? From the affidavit dated August 14, 2025, on behalf of the applicant. Thank you very much. Are there disclosures from board members?

[03:46:03] Disclosures from board members. Supervisor Herdy. Mr. Chairman, I disclose Chris Clemente and Dwight Scharr each contributed in excess of $100 to my campaign. Thank you, Supervisor Herity. Are there any other disclosures? Seeing and hearing none, I will now recognize staff for a staff presentation.

[03:46:20] Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. I'm Sunny Ann from the Department of Planning and Development. The 4.22-acre application site is part of the 17-acre midline mixed-use development approved back in 2018.

[03:46:37] The site is located at the southeastern quadrant of the intersection of Sunset Hill Road and Willie Avenue in Reston. The applicant is proposing to add age-restricted units as an option to Building A1 that the building could be developed with either the previously approved 127 independent living units or 127 age-restricted units, with the key difference being the level of service provided to residents.

[03:47:06] No changes are proposed to the approved ground floor use, site layout, and architecture. The proposal will continue to provide senior housing in the Wheatley-Ruston East Metro Station area while maintaining the originally approved without other changes.

[03:47:25] This concludes my presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this time, I'd recognize—we've just got a presentation from county staff. Recognize the applicant if you would like to give us a presentation. On December 4, 2018, JBG EYA rezoned 17.5 acres of land in order to permit up to 1.8 million square feet of mixed-use development over four development blocks, A through D.

[03:47:51] Thereafter, Comstock ground leased from JBG the two development blocks adjacent to Wheelie Avenue north and south of Reson Station Boulevard, Block A and Block B, respectively. The two remaining blocks in the midline project, Block C and Block D, were retained by the owners of the JVG/EYA property and have been or will be separately developed.

[03:48:11] The scope of this text-only PCA is rather limited. The governing entitlements anticipate independent living in Building A1. Comstock is simply asking to add an option for age-restricted housing. No changes to the development plan are proposed. Comstock continues to fundamentally believe that there is a need for senior housing component in this transit area, but there has been a significant shift away from independent living as a construct.

[03:48:37] Although seniors still want to live in community with their peers, if they're able to live independently, they can live independently in an age-restricted housing community with a la carte services like groceries, meals, and car services outsourced to independent delivery services like Instacart, DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, and at a much lower cost.

[03:48:59] Said another way, because there's no medical care offered to independent living residents, independent seniors are realizing that there's no need to pay the premiums that are associated with an independent living facility, and the demand for such facilities is declining as a result.

[03:49:16] It bears noting that even with such a narrowly scoped text-only PCA, the county requested and Comstock proffered to install a high-visibility crosswalk at the intersection of Wheely Avenue and Restless Station Boulevard and to construct a sanitary sewer improvement. Neither of these concessions are related to the keys at hand, but were important to staff for the benefit of the broader neighborhood, so Comstock agreed to assist. Any concerns that may have been associated were addressed, as noted by Ms. Yang. The staff and the Planning Commission recommended approval. I'll take questions. Thank you very much. Are there any questions

[03:49:51] of staff or the applicant? Any questions of staff or the applicant? I'm not seeing or hearing any, so thank you very much. This is a public hearing, and I do have one speaker who has signed up in advance to testify on this matter, who is a caller, Christopher Offen. Mr. Offen, can you hear me? Yes. Welcome. The floor is yours. Okay. Well, thank you for having me. As stated, my name is Christopher Offen, and I live in the Reston Station townhomes right across the street

[03:50:30] from the property in question. I'm also the president of the Homeowners Association of the townhomes of Reston Station. Regarding the proper change associated with the age-restricted dwelling units, my endorsement would be contingent on two points.

[03:50:52] One point that there is no change in the people density, But equally important, we need to have some discussion and evidence about what the developers are doing relative to vehicular parking.

[03:51:09] Presently, we have two unbuilt building areas, one being developed by Elm Street, the other one by EYA, and to my knowledge, there is not sufficient parking for those buildings potential future residents.

[03:51:31] Now we have the Comstock coming in, in the midline, and I don't see a lot of evidence that there was gonna be sufficient parking. And I would ask the Board of Supervisors to make it incumbent upon the developers to put some plan in place that is going to describe how they're going to deal with the car traffic.

[03:52:03] That's it. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Offen, for your testimony. Are there any other speakers here present who would like to testify on this matter? Anyone else present who would like to speak? This is a public hearing. Seeing and hearing no one, let me verify that there are no additional callers.

[03:52:21] No other callers. No additional callers. Give the applicant an opportunity for rebuttal. I'll just say quickly that there's no impact whatsoever to the transportation network or to the parking as a result of our requested change.

[03:52:38] Great. Thank you very much. Closing comments and a recommendation from staff. No, thank you. Okay, sorry. On July 9, 2025, the Planning Commission held a public hearing and a recommended approval of the application.

[03:52:55] Staff finds that the application is in conformance with the comprehensive plan and applicable zoning ordinance provisions. Staff recommends approval of the application subject to the proffers dated July 8, 2025, and reaffirmation of the previously approved modifications in waivers.

[03:53:13] Thank you. Thank you very much. Last call, questions from board members. Yes, Supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, so really more of a comment before we go at the public hearing. So with Mr. Offen's call, as the applicant stated, This doesn't change anything relating to the number of units, the parking configuration there.

[03:53:36] This is more of a technical change relating to how we define senior housing and independent housing. But with that said, I think we might need to have a community meeting about parking along Reston Station Boulevard.

[03:53:52] This is a little bit in flux because we have public and private adjoining each other, and the street ultimately is going to be a long public street through there, and this property doesn't join it.

[03:54:07] And so I would ask the applicant to participate in such a meeting. We can get scheduled. So, okay, I'm seeing a nodding of head. So that's it, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Thank you very much. And at this time, if there are no further questions, we'd also recognize you for a motion. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Board of Supervisors approve PCA 2016-HM-024, subject to the executed profferous date of July 8, 2025, and I move that the Board of Supervisors reaffirm the previously approved modifications and waivers contained in the handout dated July 9, 2025, which we made part of the public record.

[03:54:47] You've heard the motion and multiple seconds. I heard Supervisor Palchuk and Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

[03:55:03] Seeing and hearing none. That motion passes. Thank you very much. Our next public hearing is a public hearing. I'm going to call both of these cases a public hearing on proposed plan amendment 2024-1-1J, 74 26 idylwood road that will be heard concurrently with the public hearing on rz 2019-pr-008 splc homes associates llc both in the providence district and could the applicant please reaffirm the affidavit good afternoon i'm sarah mariska with the law firm of odenfeldman pittleman and i reaffirm the affidavit

[03:55:41] dated august 8th 2025. thank you very much are there any disclosures from board members any disclosures from board members seeing and hearing none i will now recognize county staff for staff presentation thank you mr chairman i'm daniel cree with the department of planning and development this presentation will cover the proposed plan amendment followed by the rezoning application and i'm also joined by staff from the planning division and transportation staff on february 20th 2024 the board of supervisors authorized the consideration of a plan amendment for the subject

[03:56:17] property. The proposed amendment considers an option for medium-density residential development with suitable conditions related to site design, recognizing the retention of the existing church. The subject property is located within the Jefferson Planning District, J-10, Jefferson North Community Planning Sector, located at the northwest intersection of Leesburg Pike and Idlewood Road. The recommended density range of 8 to 12 dwelling units per acre better reflects the types of uses that could be constructed on site and is compatible in use and density to the adjacent developments.

[03:56:52] Staff proposes to retain existing plan conditions related to integrating the site's topography, clustering of the development, providing high-quality open space, and conditions related to pedestrian and vehicular access. Staff has also proposed a new condition related to interpersonal multimodal vehicular and pedestrian access.

[03:57:10] Staff supports this plan amendment. Thank you very much. This time, we'd welcome the applicant's presentation. I think that we're going to do our rezoning next, and then we can open it up for the...

[03:57:28] Okay, that works. Okay. Next, I will cover the rezoning application, RZ2019-PR-08. The applicant, SPLC Homes Associates, LLC, seeks to rezone the site from the R1 and HC districts to the PDH-8 and HC districts to permit the development of up to 71 single-family attached dwelling units and the retention of an existing religious assembly with child care center.

[03:57:58] The 10.59-acre subject property, Zone Door 1, is located in the Providence District, southwest of the intersection of Leesburg Pike and Idlewood Road. A portion of this site is located within the Highway Corridor Overlay District, and the site is densely wooded and features steep grades rising approximately 100 feet from Leesburg Pike.

[03:58:16] The applicant proposes removal of an existing outbuilding and the development of the vacant portion of the property as residential. The residential development will consist of up to 71 single-family attached units at a density of 6.7 dwelling units per acre.

[03:58:35] The Religious Assembly with Child Care Center is requested to be incorporated into the proposed PH-8 district as a permitted use shown on an approved FTP. The number of seats will remain at 300 and the maximum enrollment will remain at 99 students. The request also carries forward a previously approved but unbuilt 10,732-square-foot addition to the Religious Assembly.

[03:58:59] Along Idlewood Road, the applicant proposes to reconfigure the northbound turn lanes at the intersection of Idlewood Road and Leesburg Pike. The applicant will also be constructing streetscape improvements along Idlewood Road, including an 8-foot sidewalk, street trees, and landscape amenity panels. The applicant will provide a crosswalk across Idlewood Road adjacent to McLean Park Road.

[03:59:19] At this proposed crossing, the applicant will construct a rapid flashing beacon to signal the crosswalk to drivers. Along Leesburg Pike, the applicant is dedicating right-of-way to be used for the future bus rapid transit system envisioned along the Route 7 corridor, as well as a 10-foot trail with buffers and landscaping.

[03:59:38] The applicant will also be constructing two bus shelters at two currently unimproved bus stops, as well as a concrete pad and the provisions for a capital bike-share docking station. The Park Authority calculated the development will generate a need for 0.95 acres of on-site publicly accessible park space, and the applicant is proposing approximately 1.49 acres of on-site park space.

[04:00:01] The applicant is providing the park space, including the entrance park and the muse, and a natural surface trail. Thank you. That concludes my presentation. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff? Yes, Supervisor Palchik. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Daniel.

[04:00:17] Just one clarifying question for the Capital Bike Share. I believe in addition to the pad site, they are also giving a monetary contribution for the cost of bringing in the capital back share. Yeah, that's correct. The easements, the concrete pad, and a monetary contribution of $26,000.

[04:00:33] Thank you. Okay, thank you for that. Are there any other questions of staff? Seeing and hearing none, we would now recognize the applicant for an applicant's presentation. Good afternoon. We are very pleased to be here today after working on this site for a very long time.

[04:00:49] there was actually a prior contract purchaser that filed an application in 2019 that did not move forward so we are happy to have reached this goal of this hearing today after a long process we really appreciate the work with staff as well as the community we really appreciate Daniel digging into all the details on this and being a cooperative partner on this with that I'm going to introduce Wolf Lymanstahl to briefly provide some quick summary items and images that I think help illustrate where we've ended up on this project and we're happy to take questions from anyone we have our team here to answer

[04:01:23] any questions that you all might have so thank you. Hi everyone my name is Will Lymanstall I'm a development director at UIA and excited to talk with you all about this potential redevelopment and the rezoning. Can I see the presentation? Oh perfect thank you. So you all know where the location is outlined in orange here. Daniel talked about the grade change and the existing tree cover, which both created some challenges and opportunities for us as we looked at this rezoning. We did a lot of community

[04:02:03] outreach as part of our process here, as EYA typically strives to do. So over the last two years, we've had over 20 different community meetings, both in person and virtual, different times of day, different days of the week, some geared to specific community, neighboring communities, others geared to the general public at large, and we really feel like that engagement improved our plan as well as engagement with staff. So some key elements of this, I won't go through all of it because I think Daniel covered a lot already, but in comparison to our original

[04:02:38] plan, we were able to work with the church to address staff comments about the tree preservation area behind the church. So you can see a label A that's enlarged since the earlier iterations of our plan. We also sought to better link the church with the townhome portions of the site plan with this grand stair that we've envisioned for Idlewood Road at label B there. And then I have another slide for this, but the traffic calming on Idlewood, that was a really big concern that a lot of folks brought up in our community meetings was both the traffic issues, especially in the

[04:03:15] morning, and then when there isn't traffic, the speed with which people travel down this road because of the grade change. We also shortened our retaining walls along Leesburg Pike from about, I think, 18 feet was the tallest initially to now six to eight feet is the tallest that they get.

[04:03:32] And we also expanded our buffer zones between the townhomes and the roads on both the Idlewood Road side as well as the Leesburg Pike side. And just here's some imagery of what the rear-loaded townhomes and the front-loaded townhomes will look like. So the rear-loaded just means the garages are on the back accessible via an alley. We used kind of a brownstone-esque style that we've worked with successfully in other EYA communities around the region. But each of the, you can see the accent colors are different and we use, we make sure that each townhome looks like a different

[04:04:06] building. It's not just a monotonous continuous facade. The bottom image is the front-loaded townhome, so there's about 11 of the townhomes in this plan that will be front-loaded with the garages on the front of the homes rather than the rear. The entry park that Daniel mentioned will also have some play spaces in it that will be nature-infused. We'll also work with the grade to have some amphitheater seating, and so even though it's right by the intersection, it's kind of sunken, and the landscaping will also ensure it's pretty safe and people are discouraged from going towards the streets. And then the other new park space, in addition to the existing trees that

[04:04:46] we'll preserve, is the central mews. And coming from Idlewood up, we'll have a pollinator garden and then an alley of trees and a pergola in the middle. And these will all be accessible to the public in addition to our future residents. So the last thing I just wanted to hit on was just because traffic was such a big concern here, though our traffic studies suggested there wasn't a need for us to make significant changes to improve the vehicular congestion, we did go ahead and propose adding a left turn lane to Idlewood Road going towards Leesburg Pike. So you can see

[04:05:21] on the top in the red, that's what our traffic models show, is the existing traffic queuing during rush hour. And then the bottom in green is what it will look like according to the same traffic models down the roads with this new additional left turn lane. And to address the pedestrian safety concerns, we're proposing to add a crosswalk to do a number of re-striping elements here and doing a don't block the box striping at that intersection and aligning our new entry with the McLean Park Road entry across the street. With that, we'll take questions. We

[04:05:56] have our team here and welcome the questions. Thank you all. Thank you very much. Questions? Supervisor Palachuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think this is more for FCDOT staff, but if we could go to that last slide on the transportation piece, because I know this area well, I know that that continues to be a challenge here and appreciate any improvements that are presented.

[04:06:21] And I guess if we could hear from FCDOT while they're pulling up that last slide, number one, it said contingent on approval from FCDOT and VDOT, And then number two, if you could just share with us, you know, your evaluation of these proposed improvements and have they really, is this as far, I know we've worked on this for years, is this the best that has been proposed from this project to help improve both the safety there, not just through traffic, but also that community across the street and what you expect will be the outcome of that traffic enhancement improvement.

[04:07:04] Sorry, and if we could pull it up, it just makes it easier to look at. I don't know who has that. Thank you. All right, go ahead. All right. Danny Barlow, FCDOT. I will do my best to answer here.

[04:07:20] We do think that the addition of the lane will assist in traffic operations and that the widening project and the BRT, when they come through, will also alleviate traffic concerns in this area. The proposed crosswalk and the rapid flashing beacon are safety improvements.

[04:07:38] provided by the applicant, as well as the don't-block-the-box striping. Of course, it is subject to VDOT approval at site plan stage. FCDOT is supportive of it. FCDOT is supportive. And do we get the sense from our initial conversations with VDOT that they're leaning toward being supportive?

[04:08:01] That's too hard to say. That's a tricky question. Yeah, I can't answer for them, but we have talked extensively with them about this. Okay, and from your analysis, this was the best possible outcome of the potential improvements here for pedestrian safety and traffic?

[04:08:22] Yes, I would say so. Okay, thank you. Sorry to put you on the spot. No problem. We spent a lot of years on this. I don't know if the applicant wanted to add to that, but I know that the traffic really is something that's been worked on for so long now. I don't have much to add other than to say that we have worked really hard, and we have the VDOT approval note there just because we can't unilaterally say we're going to do those things.

[04:08:48] But assuming we get the VDOT approval and we, like Danny said, we've worked very closely together over the last year and change to get to a solution that addresses both the speeding when there's no traffic and the traffic when there is traffic. Thank you. No further questions.

[04:09:03] Thank you very much. Any other board members, questions of staff or the applicant? Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing. I do have three speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter. Speaker number one is Jane Marden, who is joining us by telephone.

[04:09:21] Ms. Marden, can you hear me okay? Yes, can you hear me? We can. Welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss potential problems, in my opinion, with 7426 Idlewood Road.

[04:09:39] My three concerns are removal of the tree canopy, additional cars on Idlewood Road, and water storage units to maintain runoff from elevated areas. At the first meeting with Idlewood Homeowners Association about their proposal for townhouses at the 7426 Idlewood Road, EYA admitted a mistake.

[04:10:04] It had removed two 30-year-old magnolias to make room for two porta-potties at the Tyson's Ridge development. Thus far, the magnolias have not been replaced. The porta-potties are gone, but still no magnolia trees.

[04:10:20] This raises concern, in my opinion, for EYA's overall management of selling viable trees to clear the area for development. Anyone can make a mistake, but selling mature trees unnecessarily is concerning. What group will have a representative on site to monitor which trees go and prevent mistakes of removal of unintended canopy?

[04:10:45] Trees are vital to air purification. They're responsible for cleaning the air of cancer-causing oxides as well as particulate matter. Planting new shrubs does not make up for the clearing of mature trees. It will take decades for the trees EYA plants to make up for the trees it will destroy.

[04:11:09] Decades of dirtier air. Recently, the Parkinson's Foundation estimates that the number of people diagnosed with Parkinson's in the U.S. each year has increased 50%. Environmental toxins, which trees mitigate, are the culprits.

[04:11:27] Exhaustible cars is a major source of air pollution. Your proposal not only reduces the life-saving tree canopy, but with the addition of 70-plus downhouses and 175 more cars, not counting the myriad of van and truck deliveries, our air will be more deadly.

[04:11:48] Basically, we do not need more vehicular traffic on Idlewood Road. My last concern is the use of water storage tanks, as discussed briefly at the last hearing regarding 7426 Idlewood Road. As it was explained, these will collect runoff water from elevated areas and will need to be cleaned.

[04:12:10] Where will the water be dumped? How will the tanks be cleaned? What chemicals will be used? How and where will the effluent be discharged? This all sounds very complicated and potentially hazardous to the environment in our area.

[04:12:26] Thank you again to the board for all of their hard work. Thank you very much. For your testimony, our next speaker is Mark Shaltanis. Shaltanis, I hope I have that right. He will be speaker number two, representing St. Paul's Lutheran Church.

[04:12:46] Welcome. Thank you very much. Shaltanis, Lithuanian name. That's right. Lutheran. I am the pastor of St. Paul's, just here to represent the congregation, to say thank you for your consideration, to voice support for the project. A few years ago, we decided that we could not use that land for any church purposes. By a few years ago, I mean like 30. It's been a long

[04:13:19] process. I've been at St. Paul's 26 years. I almost tear up when I see the plan up on the screen there. I have looked at a lot of plans over the years and booked an appointment early on with Jerry Connolly when he was the supervisor to go talk to him about it.

[04:13:35] But anyway, it takes a lot of thought, a lot of planning, a lot of considerations, a lot of people to speak with. You just heard from Jane. I talked with Jane yesterday about a tree that joins our property. So I know it's complex.

[04:13:52] We've gotten great help from EYA. They've done a wonderful job. Our attorneys, we're all concerned about traffic and want to continue to encourage folks to get that right, promote safety. But simply to say thank you, and I hope that you will consider our proposal.

[04:14:14] Thank you very much. I appreciate your testimony. Speaker number three is Mustafa El Nahas. Are you on the line? Yes, I'm on the line. Welcome. The floor is yours. Good afternoon, members of Perfect County Board of Supervisors.

[04:14:30] My name is Mustafa Mahath and I live car-free next to West Falls Church Station and I'm here as a representative of EMBs of NOVA that's here in my backyard. We're a group of residents who advocate for abundant housing, more sustainable development and more inclusive communities across Northern Virginia. We believe that projects like the proposed townhouse development at St. Lutheran Church and Idlewood Road are not just beneficial but essential for the future of Fairfax County. We're here today to urge you to approve the plan and we do so for three core reasons. A textbook example of smart transit-oriented development, it addresses our critical housing

[04:15:06] shortage and directly aligns with the county's own stated planning goals. First, that is precisely the type of transit-oriented development we should be championing. The site is not just near a metro station, it's away from a region transportation hub, which now has a BRC and it's going to have buses and has the metro also we must confront our housing shortage with action not just words perfect counties under producing housing and the consequences are clear driving trends unattainable

[04:15:44] home prices for young families and essential workers and a growing disconnect between where people work and where they can afford to live the project represents a modest but meaningful increase in our housing stock with a type of attainable townhomes that is incredibly high demand.

[04:16:00] It does so on an existent church property within the existent urban fabric. Without requiring new infrastructure sprawl, this is how we grow our responsibility by adding homes in places already equipped to handle them. Finally, this proposal is a direct reflection of the planning goals the board has championed.

[04:16:17] It supports the economic success strategic plan by creating housing new job centers. It advances the perfect county strategic housing plan by providing diverse housing options. It's a perfect manifestation of the county's transit-oriented development policy, maximizing the use of land within a half mile of high-capacity transit.

[04:16:37] There are concerns about traffic, but they are not unfounded, but they are misplaced. Traffic is a reason issue caused by a lack of alternative. The solution is not to oppose housing near transit. This is a contradiction. The solution is to build more housing near transit, so that more people like myself can choose a car-free or car-like lifestyle.

[04:17:00] Supposing this project would force future residents to live further out, guaranteeing more cars on our roads and longer communes. In conclusion, this is not a difficult decision, it's an obvious one. The project checks every block, transit, housing, sustainability, and smart growth.

[04:17:17] It's a model for how we should thoroughly add missing middle housing near our most valuable assets. On behalf of the MVs of NOVA and all residents who believe in a more abundant and affordable Fairfax County, we strongly urge you to please support the application. Thank you very much for your time and your service to our community.

[04:17:35] Thank you very much for your testimony. And that is the end of my speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter, Is there anyone here present in the auditorium that would like to speak on this specific matter? This is a public hearing. Anyone who would like to speak?

[04:17:53] If you could please come on down. If there's anyone else after this gentleman that would like to speak, please come on down and sign in with the clerk off to my right, to your left. And, sir, if you could introduce yourself for us and give us your address, and you will be speaker number four.

[04:18:16] My name is Todd Thurwachter. My address is 2437 Villanova Drive, Vienna, Virginia. I'm a retired diplomat, which meant that I was mostly overseas, but I came back from Washington from time to time. And in 2000, we were attracted to St. Paul's because of its outreach to Chinese.

[04:18:35] It had a Chinese ministry. And over my years, I've been a member since, and over my years there, I have been impressed by its commitment to the neighborhood and the community in which it is. I'm particularly impressed by their preschool.

[04:18:51] I taught ESL there, but the preschool probably has kids from 20 different countries originally, many American, but from different countries. And it really has a commitment to, and they're mostly from the neighborhood, and it really has a commitment to the people in the neighborhood.

[04:19:12] I know they're very concerned about the environment. This has been going on for quite some time. I know how the people in the church feel about the environment and the beautiful canopy that we do have. And so, and I know from our work days and clearing out the brush and that firsthand that it is a priority.

[04:19:30] And I know that to the extent possible that we will be working very closely with the developer, which has been very good with us, to make sure this is considered. And certainly that area scares me every time I come into the church with the traffic.

[04:19:48] And I think that this might provide long overdue improvement of that situation. Today, it just happened, the devotional was Matthew 5, 16 to 18. Let your life so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

[04:20:07] And I believe that St. Paul's, with this project, is committed to continuing to be a blessing to the community. Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak on this matter? Anyone else present who would like to speak on this matter?

[04:20:24] Seeing and hearing no one, let me ask the clerk if we have any callers. No callers. No callers. Give the opportunity for the applicant for any rebuttal. I'll just briefly say that we have worked very hard on the trees, and we are exceeding significantly the tree canopy to ensure that this is a long-standing, successful tree canopy and removing trees that are really in bad shape or invasive.

[04:20:51] So we have worked diligently with staff to make sure that we're striking that balance of saving as many trees as possible and planting new ones that can remain healthy. And then, really, this is about a partnership with the church to how we can make sure that their needs are supported. development goes in next to the metro and then we can also accomplish some of those transportation improvements so all of that has been something that we've worked to consider as part of this process we look forward to continuing those conversations with the community so thank you thank you very much closing comments and a recommendation from County staff on July 16th 2025 the

[04:21:26] Planning Commission recommended approval of RZ 2019 - PR - 0 0 8 and the associated waivers and modifications staff concurs with this recommendation Thank you very much. Final questions from Board Member Supervisor Palchik. Thank you.

[04:21:42] I was going to speak more to it in my comments, but I think, number one, if you could just confirm for us, I think the applicant mentioned this, and I pass it every day, it is quite impacted by invasive species, and I think you brought this up in your context.

[04:21:57] But I think one comment that was brought up by Ms. Martin was around just ensuring that Whoever is doing the construction and the work will have oversight that there will be an enforcement of improved both reduction of the invasives, as well of the planting and protection of the trees and the non-invasives that we're looking to protect.

[04:22:25] Yes, absolutely. We have committed to a number of very specific proffers that do require oversight and inspection and continued cooperation with the county, both as we install the improvements and during the process. And we are very aware of those concerns. And as the pastor mentioned, we will continue to be in touch with the community and the church will be part of those conversations as well, as well as the county.

[04:22:46] So we're sensitive to those concerns and we'll make sure they're addressed. Because they were brought up. I love magnolias as well, but I don't know. I know you are doing everything you can to protect them. Is that something that you were able to do or do you know yet what the status of those magnolia trees will be.

[04:23:05] This was at the Tyson's Ridge project. It's a project at 7700 and Leesburg Pike. So I cannot speak directly to that situation, but a different project, not something that's happened on this site. Okay, thank you. Sure. Appreciate that. Sorry, and for staff on the transportation, you know, a lot was brought up about that.

[04:23:23] My understanding is that not only do we have two separate bus lines here and the future BRT, but could you just clarify for us the distance both from, I mean, I think we're also very close to 66, but the distance from West Falls Church Metro Station, I believe it's less than a mile. I don't know if you have that.

[04:23:44] Or we can look it up, but I believe it's less than a mile from that Metro Station. It's pretty close to, like, as the crow flies. We can look it up quickly or get back to you, but there's a connector bus and a Metro bus on the property and then the BRT line as well.

[04:24:01] Excellent. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions from board members? Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Palchuk for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will try to cut back my remarks a little bit, but as was mentioned, this has been in the process long before my time.

[04:24:23] I don't know if Supervisor Lusk was in Jerry Connolly's office at the time. It was quite a while ago, so he probably was the first one to look at this project. Thank you to the pastor, I didn't realize your background, my maternal grandmother is from Vilnius, and so Lithuania is very near and dear to my heart, and to the community who have been either dealing with this or trying to create an appropriate future use of this facility in this area.

[04:24:56] As you heard, and those of you who drive by Route 7, maybe you're getting on 66, you go by this you see the site and you see the potential improvements that could be made here I do believe it offers a rare and valuable opportunity for development and well located very central not far from Tyson's not far from both public transit as was mentioned as well as connections to 266 which also has commuter buses on it. I do believe that this is an area that has been looked at

[04:25:32] and that is very important both for the future of the Silver Line, which is not far, as well as to making sure that we meet the ridership for public transit and the housing for our community and for our workforce. They are it is almost down the street from housing of different types as well as from a shopping Center that continues to provide quite a bit of opportunity for residents, visitors, and workers here in the area. One of the big issues was around the

[04:26:08] conditions for pedestrians, especially now that we have Ruxtell Park open just down the road, a beautiful, beautiful amenity. I recommend everyone to check out this beautiful, complete park, but knowing that we prefer to make it safer for people in the community to be able to walk to that park and not to have to get in their car to go safely to the park or to the shopping center or other amenities I appreciate that there will be new bus shelters that there will be the crosswalk with don't block the box hopefully VEDA finalizes that approval as well as sidewalks and improve I think a trail the eight-foot trail along

[04:26:46] Idlewood and I believe 10 foot along Route 7 so all of those impuse improvements right away for the future BRT and one of my favorite pieces the capital bike share location the pad site so that we can improve that network and it's an being used especially with the e-bikes now as an increased last mile connection to Metro and to transit so I think those are all important approval approvals improvements and as was mentioned the interparcel connectivity has taken quite a bit of work I believe you may know that there

[04:27:24] is a proposal that is being looked at in the adjacent property and there will be easements for the connectivity here and last but certainly not least the engagement as was shared that has happened with the community I think is testified here and that a lot of the concerns that have come up over the years have been addressed and a lot of improvements proposed and committed to as well as housing that is coming with affordable housing units incorporated to allow more of our community to live and work close to great jobs excellent

[04:28:02] schools and transit and then finally I definitely want to make sure I think everyone who has worked well not everyone but most of the people I think who have worked on it in its latest iteration. Number one, to Daniel Creed and the whole team.

[04:28:19] Daniel, you've done incredible work in the evaluation of both the processing of the zoning. And then thank you for presenting the comprehensive plan. And Mark Dreyfuss and Danny and the team at FCDOT. We are in probably one of the densest, most urban parts of the county, not far from here.

[04:28:40] And so it gets trickier and trickier to look at safer, multimodal transportation, because the Department of Transportation is not just about cars. It's about the people and the safety. So to that, I also absolutely want to thank the applicants.

[04:28:56] I want to thank the community, those who testified today, those who have testified in the past to the church and the pastor for your many, many years and tenacity and looking to be able to both maintain your church and your excellent daycare. and protect that space, as well as being able to bring some housing where we know there's a great shortage of housing. And to our commissioners, especially Commissioner Hancock and Chairman Nitzelski-Eichner, who have worked on, both worked on this application. All right, so to that, I do have a motion. Actually, I believe I have two motions, so I will read them separately.

[04:29:36] The first motion is on the plan amendments, and I move that the Board of Supervisors adopts the Planning Commission recommendation for Plan Amendment 2024-I-1J as found in the board item.

[04:29:53] You've heard the motion. The Chair will second that along with Supervisor Alcorn. Discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[04:30:09] I move that the Board of Supervisors approve RZ-2019-PR-008 and its associated CDP, subject to the executed proffers dated August 14, 2025, and I further move that the Board of Supervisors approve the waivers and modifications listed in the handout dated and distributed August 25, 2025.

[04:30:34] Heard the motion. The chair will second that again with Supervisor Alcorn. Discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Thank you all very much.

[04:30:52] That brings us to our final public hearing before we go to closed session. I'm sorry, before we go to public comment. Before we go to public comment, our final public hearing of the evening is a public hearing to consider an ordinance expanding the Oakton Residential Permit Parking District, District 19 in the Providence District. And we will give staff a moment to get organized. And as soon as they are

[04:31:22] ready, we would welcome a staff presentation. Good afternoon, Chairman McKay, members of the board, Henry Stein-McCartney with the Department of Transportation. This is a public hearing to

[04:31:58] consider expanding the Oakton Residential Permit Parking District, District 19, to include the east side of Sutton Road from Sutton Green Court to the northern property boundary of 9640 Sutton Green Court, as shown on attachment 2 of the board package. Sutton Green Homeowners Association requested expansion of the Oakton RPPD due to unreasonable burdens to access their property caused by the parking of non-resident vehicles during school hours.

[04:32:30] The petitioning block meets the code requirements for RPPD based on its walking distance proximity to Oakton High School. Thank you. Thank you very much for that presentation. Are there any questions of staff? Any questions of staff from board members?

[04:32:46] Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing. I have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter. is there anyone here present who would like to speak specifically on this parking district anyone present who would like to testify this is a public hearing searing seeing and hearing no one let me ask if the clerk has any callers there are no callers there are no callers uh closing comments and a recommendation from staff based on the fulfillment of all requirements set forth in fairfax county code staff recommends approval of the rppd expansion as it proposed thank you very

[04:33:24] much any questions from board members last call seeing and hearing none I will now close the public hearing and recognize supervisor Palchuk for a motion thank you mr. chairman I move that the board approve an amendment to appendix G of Fairfax County code to expand the Oakton residential permit parking parking district district 19 to include the east side of Sutton Road from Sutton Green Court to the northern property boundary of 9640 Sutton Green Court heard the motion the chair will second that any discussion on the motion

[04:33:59] supervisor Palchuk I just really really want to thank Henry Stein McCartney for her work on this with the community I believe only six of the 12 homes are eligible for this and there was you know approval absolutely and again we know this area just outside of Oakton High School, where we are seeing and supporting more safety for our students or pedestrians or cyclists, and how we manage our transportation and traffic

[04:34:34] through here and going forward years after the fatal crash that happened just outside of this road. So I just want to thank her and her team for their dedication to this work, and every little bit helps. So thank you, Henry. Thank you very much.

[04:34:50] any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Thank you very much. We're now going to move to our final agenda item today, which is public comment.

[04:35:06] And I'm just going to remind some folks about some of the parameters for public comment. I want to remind folks that the board will hear public comment on any issue except issues under litigation, issues that have been scheduled for public hearing before the board, and personnel matters and or comments regarding specific individuals. Speakers must register in advance, and each speaker is given three minutes for his or her remarks. A maximum of 10 speakers may address the board during any public comment period, and speakers may address the board once during a six-month period. And again, you must have been signed up in advance to provide testimony.

[04:35:46] I do have eight speakers who have signed up today, and I'm going to call our first speaker, who is here. I see him. Robert Whitfield will be speaker number one. Speaker number two will be Frank Croson, who is going to be joining us by phone, and speaker number three will be Nicole Miller.

[04:36:10] Welcome. Chairman and members of the Board of Supervisors, this time I made it. Last time it was a thunderstorm that nixed my phone. So I'm Rob Whitfield. I'm with the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, but these are remarks of my own. Fundamentally, we're having a crisis of trust with this board because I don't know quite the relationship between you and the school board in terms of what your authority is versus theirs.

[04:36:38] But quite clearly, the school board is acting autonomously and autocratically, and the whole issue of boys' and girls' bathrooms has got to be resolved, and the best interests of our children is a fundamental matter that has to be resolved.

[04:37:00] And quite frankly, I think that you failed in your duty to the public in this matter. But I'm here to co-talk on transportation issues. Today, in fact, actually this is Sunday's paper, there's a Washington Post article about the death spiral would cut lifeline for Philadelphia riders.

[04:37:21] I haven't seen, there's apparently an article in the Post today that I have not seen. But it's been apparent for many years, I went to about 100 WOMADA board meetings between 2010 and end of 2019. And I saw gross mismanagement, and two different inspector generals were let go by the WMATA board without explanation.

[04:37:47] And unfortunately, there has been a failure to address the fundamental mismatch between revenues and expenses. This has been going on for a decade. The peak ridership of the Metro Rail was about 2010. Even before COVID-19, the ridership was down by 25%, 30%.

[04:38:07] Right now, there's a group called DMV Moves, which is co-run by the Armada Board and the Council of Governments. And I've tried for a year to get them to keep me in the loop on what's going on. I've forgotten the name of the gentleman who's the chair of MWCOG.

[04:38:26] I gather he used to be the chief of staff for the former governor. But I can tell you that my trust is zero right now with your board and your school board. And the question is, what are you going to do? I heard you making comments this morning about a business plan.

[04:38:43] I support what Jeff McKay has tried to do in many respects to get a fair share of the tax revenue we send to Richmond. I'd be more than glad to suggest how I see. But we're facing a severe depression in the commercial real estate market.

[04:39:00] And some of your work policies are not influencing positively on businesses wanting to be in this county. So as to the DMV moves and the SJ28 subcommittee, we need to have some kind of public forum in Fairfax County.

[04:39:20] I don't want it down at the Council of Governments or downtown or in Arlington County. You've got to have the opportunity for people to speak out here outside the Beltway. Because we funded the Silver Line, the WMATA Board did not. And so there's got to be a fundamental revision in how we approach the future of Bermuda.

[04:39:41] And the passengers need to pay their fair share. Right now, all the proposals that I've seen on SJ28 does not even mention the riders' responsibility for paying towards operating costs. And I have much more to say, but I will leave that for another time.

[04:39:58] Thank you, Rob. Thank you. Thank you very much, Rob. Speaker number two is Frank Croson. Are you on the line, Frank? Welcome. The floor is yours. My agenda is the bike path in 66.

[04:40:17] There's only two ways to get on the bike path. Alden Road, which you can't ride a bike on Alden Road. And the second entrance is on the Brannock Road, which is a curve.

[04:40:38] Very dangerous curve. You have to go opposite direction on the curve to get on the bike path. And you have to cross the street and face oncoming traffic around the curb.

[04:40:58] Rack Road is always a very busy road. And V-Docs said that Fairfax owns the land with a creek. They said if the supervisors give their approval, that they might build a bridge to the bike path.

[04:41:19] And I would like to know if someone could check into that. Okay. Thank you very much for your testimony. We will look into that and report back.

[04:41:37] Speaker number three is Nicole Miller, to be followed by David Vasquez and Teresa Brunbach. If I called your name, please be ready to testify. Ms. Miller, welcome. The floor is yours. Hi. I just want to first apologize if I offend anyone with my testimony.

[04:41:53] I'm here as a resident of the Franconia District, and I'm also here as a private citizen. I have some concerns about the Lions Club flea market and the VRE. So I'm here to ask for a solution that doesn't just benefit the Lions Club. The county has cleaned up the unhoused camp that is in the woods at Heckenter Drive numerous times.

[04:42:13] And now instead of them being in the woods, they just lay all over our neighborhood. But the stuff that you're pulling out of the woods comes from the Lions Club VRE, the flea market they have there. A flea market is normally where you go and sell use items, but this flea market isn't only like other flea markets. The vendors there are selling new tools, they're selling laundry soap, diapers, those types of things.

[04:42:34] And the things that they don't sell, they leave behind. And once they leave behind, those unhealth folks that live in the woods are dragging that stuff back into the woods with them. And so for us here in the neighborhood, we're seeing that. Every morning when we go to the VRE to ride the VRE, on Monday morning, the lot is full of cars, garbage, and other types of things laying in there.

[04:42:54] For us, this is not a Franconia district issue. this is a Mason District issue, this flat belongs to Mason District, and we have literally called Aaron Campbell at least a thousand times this year alone, asking him to clean up something that doesn't even belong within that district. It should be handled by the Mason District.

[04:43:10] We don't even have a point of contact who actually responds to us when we have complaints. So from there, another question we'd like to know is, where are their business licenses? You're selling brand new products within the county, and there's none of them are licensed. You can ask them you can look them up it's all public record where are their sales and use tax how much taxes are they paying and when they don't report any of their taxes they go back and claim that they don't make any money and then they can apply for county services because they have no income or low income and they lack that with us in our neighborhood because they know that they're getting away with it so it might be small revenue for Fairfax County but they do evade these programs that you guys offer for those that are low income by not

[04:43:48] claiming their cash sales that they make and then after you guys clean up the unhoused project. This year, the county put a dumpster there for the maintenance office to empty those woods out. And what happened with that dumpster is that the Lions Club vendors filled it beyond the limit that Republic would allow. Then the county had to send somebody out to remove half this stuff just so that Republic would come back and pick it up. That happened three times this year. Who paid for that? We did. As taxpayers, we shouldn't be paying for something. The Lions Club should be held accountable for the trash that their vendors bring. And since I have all of your ear do you know that it costs $13 to throw a tire away and it costs $40 to

[04:44:26] throw a brick away does anyone here know what a brick cost a brick dollar two dollars for a brick and you charge $40 at the dump that's why this stuff is ending up in the woods at Hechinger Drive the tires the bricks all because people don't want to pay that the small business owners are saving thousands by just dumping it there off the little cliff that's back there and then you guys are sticking it on us to clean that up but the the cost from whatever it we're whoever's cleaning it up. And the last thing I want to say, I know I'm over my time, but I want to say this. The people who live at the local apartments that are next to the VRE, they're parking their cars in the VRE parking lot because they're terrified that something's

[04:45:04] going to happen to them. Most of them tell us their story when we ask in the morning why they're still parking here, why they're doing that, is because they're afraid that DHS is going to come get them. So they're taking up a quarter of the parking lot every night because they think that DHS is driving through their parking lot waiting for them and so all I'm asking for for that part is if you could find some kind of comparable thing that you could work out with one of the shopping centers so that the VRE parking spaces are not taken and it doesn't have to include parking tickets and towing it whatever it is but it's really heartbreaking to watch these people hide their cars so that they don't get picked up when they're both cars are necessary for the people who are trying to use the VRE and after September 30th

[04:45:44] when the DRP people go back to work, the people who willingly quit. There's going to be so many more people using public transportation. They're going to need those spaces, and they're all being hogged by people who are terrified they're going to be disappeared. But thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you very much, Nicole.

[04:45:59] Speaker number four is David Vasquez. Is David here? Okay. To be followed by, if I call your name, please be down here ready to testify, Teresa Broomback, Broomback, Diane Dresner, and Linda Walsh.

[04:46:15] If I call your name, please be ready to testify. Welcome, Mr. Vasquez. Thank you, sir. Thank you all for being here. I'm hoping you all can help me. I have a very serious complaint against the police department that I believe is worthy of consideration by the police civilian review panel.

[04:46:33] And to that end, I've seen them or gone to see them twice, and they have denied my request on a technicality. They say that I missed a deadline. I contend that it wasn't my lack of timeliness, but their miscommunication that led to that, and so that they should then consider it.

[04:46:52] You're not the first folks. I'm a former military. I sort of know a hierarchy. I try to go up the chain of command. I've been to Mr. Stork's office. I've been to the chief of police, the deputy chief of police, and I've also been to the police civilian review panel to try and address this. They're saying I missed my deadline by 12 days.

[04:47:09] If you'll allow me to read their letter real quick that they sent to me initially when I put in my police complaint. It says, once the Fairfax County Police Department investigation is complete, you'll receive two letters, two letters. First, the Fairfax County Police Department will send you a letter summarizing the results of its investigation.

[04:47:25] I did get that in the mail, a letter in the mail. Second, the panel, having also received the investigation results from the Fairfax County Police Department, will also send you a letter explaining the process of seeking a panel review if you are not satisfied with the findings of the Fairfax County Police Department Investigation.

[04:47:42] Obviously, I wasn't satisfied, which is why I was seeking the review. I never got a letter, and they agree. I never got a letter. They sent an email. I contend they sent it to the wrong email, to a scanned place. It's interesting that they're actually willing to consider that concept, and they're going to rewrite the bylaws so that instead of saying letter, they're going to talk about electronic communication.

[04:48:04] But they're not willing to give me the consideration to actually consider my police complaint on a technicality. The other interesting thing about that is that their letter continues and says, Fairfax County Police Department investigations are typically concluded within 60 days.

[04:48:21] Unless there are circumstances, they require a longer investigation period. The police department took 86 days to respond to my initial complaint. I will continue their letter. It says, we will notify you if the 60-day period is extended. They agree that they never send me a letter extending the police department's time.

[04:48:40] So they're not being held to a standard of timeliness. But I missed mine by six days, and only because I approached them because I had not gotten a letter. They agree. They never sent a letter. They sent an email. I contend I never got the email.

[04:48:56] I don't know how you prove a negative. But I think I have a very serious complaint. And to not review it on a technicality when you're holding me to a higher standard than you're holding the police department seems unfair. In all fairness, Mr. Stork's office addressed it with me.

[04:49:14] and they said we need a second board member, apparently, to get the civilian review panel to consider my case. Thank you. I hope I can get a second member. Thank you, Mr. Vasquez, for your testimony.

[04:49:32] Speaker number five is Teresa Broomback. Is Teresa here? Teresa Broomback. Okay, how about Diane Dresner? If you can come on down, Linda Walsh, to be followed by Nicole McGill.

[04:49:55] So we are on speaker number six, Diane Dresner. Welcome. Hi. Hello, everyone. Hi, Kathy. My name is Diane Dresner, and my family and I have lived in Fairfax County since 1982. One of the first things we loved about Fairfax County was its diversity and inclusion, which has only grown over the years.

[04:50:13] I applaud the establishment of General Order 604 and the trust policy and thank the board board, especially Chairman McKay and District Supervisors John Faust and Dalla Palchik. My concern today is the changes made to General Order 604 this February.

[04:50:31] The following are quotes from Angela Woesley's article in Fairfax Now published in June. As of February 21, 2025, General Order 604 no longer explicitly prohibits employees from assisting and sharing information with ICE, directing them instead to comply with the broader trust policy adopted in 2021. Also, employees are now only encouraged to document ICE requests for information. The deletion of information sharing restrictions remains publicly unexplained, and that was by the ACLU People Power of Fairfax. As I understand

[04:51:08] it, none or at least not all of the cooperation of Fairfax employees, including the police and sheriff departments, will be keeping track of the explicit cooperations given to ICE. Are we the taxpayers paying the salaries of these workers and yet not entitled to know how much of their time is spent cooperating with ICE instead of doing the jobs we are paying them for?

[04:51:27] Are we not to know this vital information about how our community is being treated? Any cooperation with ICE puts our community at risk. Separation of families, immigrants afraid to report crimes, criminals going unpunished, children afraid to go to school, parents afraid to let them.

[04:51:43] Our Constitution says all persons, not just citizens, are entitled to due process of law. Yet every day there is new evidence of ICE and the current administration disregarding this. They are terrorizing people, mask unidentified bullies. Our governor now threatens to have our National Guard join in.

[04:52:00] ICE is arresting persons who go to Virginia immigration courts for their scheduled hearings, grabbing people outside and inside the Fairfax County Courthouse. It kind of looks like cooperation to me. New information is in the news about overcrowded, insufficient, filthy holding centers here in Virginia, lack of food, water, bathrooms, beds, or enough beds.

[04:52:21] Please do not capitulate to the Trump administration. We have over three years to go, and we need to strengthen our laws to protect our community, not weaken them. Where do we draw the line? I say here and now. Thank you. Thank you very much, Diane, for your testimony, and thank you all for being here to support her as well.

[04:52:40] Appreciate that. Speaker number seven is Linda Walsh, to be followed by, is Nicole McGill here? Okay. You will be our final speaker, speaker number eight. Welcome, Ms. Walsh. Thank you.

[04:52:57] My name is Linda Walsh, and I'm representing the No Fairfax Casino Coalition. I want to thank you all for this opportunity for public comment, and hope you found some time this summer to renew yourselves, as we know that this year will be a difficult year.

[04:53:14] casinos. That's, of course, what I'm going to talk about. Over the past three years, we have led grassroots oppositions of proposed casino legislation in Reston and in Tyson's. We fully expect another casino bill will be offered in January. We urge you, again, to say emphatically a no to Richmond. And also, I think we should add that only local jurisdictions, the government, should be allowed to request that authority instead of anybody.

[04:53:51] So anyway, it's particularly important this year to take a clear stance. As we have heard whispers that the casino proponents, recognizing that Fairfax voters do not want casinos, are sort of socializing if people will support a legislation that omits the referendum.

[04:54:19] I believe we all can agree that key decisions concerning land use should remain with Fairfax County, the citizens, and especially our elected officials. And you've stated such. The coalition remains firmly opposed to the Fairfax County Casino.

[04:54:37] Since the drawbacks have been discussed here many times with you, I'm sure you'll be relieved to hear that I'm not going to go over them. Today, the No Casino, Fairfax Casino Coalition, asks that you support the formation of the Virginia Gaming Commission.

[04:54:55] Legislation will be proposed this year by Senator Erd and Delegate Kreese. During their August 19th meeting of the Joint Subcommittee to study the feasibility of establishing a Virginia Gaming Commission, It was repeatedly stated that Virginia is struggling to regulate gaming, be it authorized or illegal.

[04:55:19] And we anticipate that gaming will be expanded. Notably, Senator Simon delivered a presentation on iGaming at that meeting. Should iGaming be approved, it would affect all residents of Virginia by enabling them to place wagers easily via their cell phones.

[04:55:42] The Virginia Commission will consolidate fragmented oversight, streamline and improve communications, regulatory efficiency, address the rapid growth of gaming, and ensure alignment with Virginia needs, provide resources to address problem gambling.

[04:56:02] Given the current fragmented regulation of the gaming and the possibility of expanded gaming and the rise in problem gambling, we ask that your 2026 legislative agenda include the following. Support for the formation of the Virginia Gaming Commission.

[04:56:22] Request a moratorium on gaming expansion until the commission is stood up. And, of course, say no to Richmond and protect the referendum requirement. I thank you for this time. Thank you very much, Linda.

[04:56:39] Our eighth speaker is Nicole McGill. Welcome. And Ms. McGill will be our final speaker on public comment. New Day Fairfax County and everyone tuning in.

[04:56:57] I'm Nicole McGill, Bubbles Mommy, Chairperson of the Wynn Center Board of Directors. Today, I formally bring awareness to the fact that January 2025, Department of Justice and Virginia permanent injunction agreement to enforce compliance of the American Disability Act in Armstead for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities that do and do not live with mental illness too. Mental health affects everyone. Just like any medical issue, it worsens if not being addressed. Yes, I'm using the word addressed and not treated because not

[04:57:34] everyone needs long-term or traditional drugs, also known as dependency on medicine, to get better. I'm speaking about this tonight because this is an issue with people that live with mental illnesses only. Even people with mental illnesses that are ahead of household working towards financial self-sufficiency. Mental illness recovery can be simply living well and it's possible for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. People that live with traumatic brain injury experience and adequate services that live with mental illness too.

[04:58:06] Adequate services is warranted for all to receive and has been demanded to be given starting with this permanent injunction. I call on all to take the time to learn what healthy community support means with caution that mental that mis-education and misled advice is still at large. Remember while we live in harmony striving for peace and longevity recovery is not a cure and steadily and is needed steadily doing the work to reach and maintain recovery is necessity not just an

[04:58:39] individual. However, family, friends, and neighbors must upkeep the community's support too. What does healthy community support mean? That is an answer that can be generalized. However, in truth, it is individualized. Virginia mental health reform is going on. Fairfax County. Y'all have to be aware of this. The mental health reform is going on here, just in case you haven't heard. The WINS Center is steadily recruiting in a less than part-time capacity volunteers to continue helping our alliances in pairs with a hand up, not a handout. We're not that type of charitable

[04:59:18] organization. We plan on doing innovative services and local organizations with local organizations here in Fairfax County. We are run by people that have two or more years experience with living in recovery with severe mental illnesses because it's VAIR. We do recruit people with or without other diagnoses. We are the organization for reaching recovery and learning how to maintain it.

[04:59:43] Before I end here, here he, here he, we have swag tools, we have swag tools, come and get our swag tools. Swag tools introduction can be found on YouTube. Think of swag tools as a bespoke, made to measure, off-the-rack suit before altered to fit you perfectly.

[05:00:03] I have personally emailed, if not all, the majority of Virginia's elected officials a copy, and you will be getting one after this meeting. All I have said today was in the spirit of Virginia-Tyrewater area where our headquarters is located for the past 11 years.

[05:00:19] We've been doing this work for 11 years. I hope my public comment was received in Fairfax County with much respect, human and human love, air hugs, and light hair grace. Thank you. Thank you very much, Nicole. Thank you for your testimony and for joining us this evening.

[05:00:36] And with that, that brings us to the end of our board meeting of August 26, 2025. And the board is adjourned.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com