Alex 311 (Submit Service Requests to City Agencies)
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2020 Census
The decennial census is vital for the City to capture a snapshot of our community and support efforts to achieve additional Federal funding in the future.
Please complete your questionnaire today!
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Real Estate Assessment Appeals
Any appeal of 2020 Real Estate Assessments must be filed by June 1 for hearing by the Board of Equalization.
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Parker Gray High School
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Parker-Gray High School.
The former school educated African-American students for decades in our City.
For both recognition and fundraising, a memorial sidewalk is being installed.
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Free Community College Classes
The program will allow high school juniors and seniors to take up to two online courses for free. The available course cover topics ranging from Cloud Computing to World Civilization.
The courses will run from June 1st to July 15th.
Register today!
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Be Smart
Parents for Safe Alexandria Schools is working to advocate to protect our children from the horrors of gun violence.
This group is promoting the BE SMART campaign to normalize conversations about gun safety to protect our community.
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The Commonwealth had closed schools and churches. Many occupations required masks to slow transmission.
The Red Cross set up a temporary hospital at the corner of Prince and South Saint Asaph in Old Town to help handle the onslaught.
A century later, a new generation of Alexandrians is now addressing our own pandemic. While the COVID-19 outbreak has threatened the lives, well-being and financial stability of so many in our community, as we did a century ago, we will recover.
While history can somewhat guide us, this is a unique crisis and it requires ingenuity, innovation and flexibility. Our community has adapted to these challenges with patience and overwhelming generosity of time and treasure.
A month ago, when I wrote you, 44 of our neighbors had tested positive for COVID-19. Today, 754 have been diagnosed with the virus, 97 have been hospitalized and sadly 21 have lost their lives.
To the families of those who have been lost, you are in our thoughts during this time. I am hopeful that the support of our community for you can be felt during this isolating moment.
While we can begin the conversation about what is next, we still face several realities:
- The lives of many members of our community depend on our ability to comply with the guidance of public health experts and direction of our Governor to stay home, distance ourselves and avoid transmitting or contracting this virus.
- Testing for the COVID-19 virus is now widely available in our City for those patients who are exhibiting symptoms. We still do not have the testing capacity for testing of asymptomatic residents.
- The Alexandria Health Department has an extensive contact tracing effort in place to track and trace the contacts of all residents who have become infected with this virus.
- Many of our fellow residents are facing sudden food insecurity, housing insecurity and unemployment or underemployment.
- Commerce in our City, particularly for our small businesses, has taken a body blow.
- Our City's finances will now suffer the most significant decline in our lifetimes.
But ultimately we will get through this challenge with the spirit that has made this community the great place it has been for hundreds of years.
The lone bright spot of this experience has been the irrepressible volunteerism and generosity of the residents of our City and the commitment, professionalism and bravery of the women and men who serve in our City government, our school system and our healthcare providers. We will follow them out of this crisis.
Since the beginning of April, I have been doing a weekly Virtual Living Room Town Hall sessions to answer questions from the public regarding the City's on-going response. You can view each session online: April 2nd Living Room Town Hall
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The City Responds to COVID-19
If you have questions about the outbreak that cannot be answered by your physician, the Alexandria Health Department has set up a hotline staffed during business hours at 703-746-4988. Additionally, the Virginia Department of Health has a hotline at 877-ASK-VDH3.
While 754 Alexandrians have been diagnosed with COVID-19, 2,664 tests have been administered and 97 residents have been hospitalized.
Inova Alexandria hospital is currently operating with 313 beds, of which about 60% are currently being utilized. They are currently treating 60 COVID-19 patients, which is a reduction from recent numbers.
There are plans in place to construct a 500+ bed "surge" capacity hospital facility for Northern Virginia at the Dulles Expo Center, but at this point the Governor has not proceeded with that construction.
The Governor has issued two successive orders that impact our economy and our daily lives.
The first was Executive Order 53, which imposed temporary restrictions on a variety of businesses, banned gatherings and schools for the remainder of the year. This order has now been extended until May 7th.
 The Alexandria Health Department is advising residents to practice social distancing by maintaining 6-feet of separation from any other person, washing hands frequently with soap or hand sanitizer and wearing a face covering whenever in public where social distancing might not be possible. This is not only to protect your health, but to protect the health of others.
The City has an extensive contact tracing effort underway, to ensure that all those who may have come into contact with someone infected with COVID-19, are notified and take appropriate precautions. The City's Medical Reserve Corps is seeking volunteers, both with and without medical training, to assist during this crisis. You can sign-up on-line.
The City is working quickly to assist businesses that have been hard hit by this crisis.
Visit Alexandria launched "ALX At Home" to make it easier for residents to support shopping at Alexandria businesses.
We worked with businesses across the City to implement new  delivery and pick-up parking zones in front of their establishments.
All of the utilities serving the City have suspended disconnects due to non-payment, including:
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Budget Adoption
The budget that the City Council adopted on Wednesday evening is the tenth budget I have been a part of as a member of City Council. Our budget process typically begins in February with the City Manager's presentation. It is a furious process with weekly budget work sessions, significant public input and an occasionally difficult process of negotiating what is "in," and what is "out."
This year's process has been like none other.
To conclude this current fiscal year in balance, the City Manager will immediately institute emergency measures, including:
- Hiring Freeze
- Reduction of discretionary operating costs
- Reduction/freeze of pending capital projects
- Draw-down on contingency funds
These measures will get the City through the current fiscal year, but revisions to the proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget and the Fiscal Year 2021 - 2030 Capital Improvement Program were also required.
- Removal of the proposed 2-cent real estate tax rate increase and deferral of the proposed capital investments
- Removal of all proposed salary adjustments to City employees (pay freeze)
- Reduction of the proposed operating budget transfer to the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) by $7.4 million
- Removal of nearly every single proposed new expenditure
- Deferral of numerous capital projects, including the ACPS rebuild of Minnie Howard School and the waterfront flood mitigation work
The scale of the reductions now required dwarf what was required during the Great Recession or the period after 9/11. While we have now adopted the FY 2021 budget, the impacts of the economic dislocation from the pandemic will impact FY 2022 and beyond.
While the impacts of this outbreak are presently being felt on the consumption portion of the City's revenues (Dining tax, Sales Tax, Business, Professional, and Occupational License {BPOL} and Transient Lodging Tax), these challenges will eventually impact the City's real estate tax base, which is decisive for the City's financial fortunes.
This pandemic, and the financial impacts, come at a time where the City was finally seeing moderate health in the growth of our tax base.
The adoption of the $2 trillion "CARES Act" is a positive move by the Federal government. It will provide money to our residents, our businesses, and to state and local governments in a few ways. Yet, as mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter, the full impact of these investments are unlikely to prevent painful reductions for our City.
Ordinarily, I work in each budget process to adopt a budget reflective of our values and the need of this community. This budget does not do that. Yet this budget is a reflection of the situation we are in and the decisions that will await us next year and beyond.
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Continuity of Government & Meetings
After several weeks of deferring any non-COVID-19 business, the City Council is now working to determine how we will return to addressing "routine" City matters in a very different environment.
Under Virginia law, a quorum of the City Council, which in Alexandria's case is 4 of our 7 members, is required to physically be present in the same place in order to transact public business. Initially, the Council met in early March with 4 members of Council present in the City Council chamber at City Hall, and 3 members dialed in from their homes.
As the emergency escalated, any attendance in person was no  longer possible. Existing State law does allow virtual meetings during an emergency situation, but the matters being discussed are strictly limited to those relating to the on-going emergency. While those limitations are workable for 1 or 2 meetings, as time passes, and the statutory obligations of the City government are further deferred, this becomes problematic.
With that guidance in hand, the City has continued our on-going budget process in virtual meetings and addressed a few emergent issue. However, we have largely deferred most business before the Council, including all land-use matters. Meetings of the City's Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals and Board of Architectural Review have been cancelled.
Last week, the Governor proposed amended language within the State Budget that would expand the authority under the Code and largely allow the City to conduct most business that comes before the City Council in virtual meetings during a state of emergency.
These are unusual times for the City and for local governments around the Commonwealth. I believe this approach will strike the appropriate balance to ensure public participation and transparency.
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The CARES Act In Alexandria
The City of Alexandria may possibly receive up to $27 million of the Commonwealth's allocation of Federal CARES Act funding. The City Council is developing plans to put that money to good work immediately to serve the residents and businesses of our community.
From the beginning of this crisis, it has been clear that the two levels of government, local and state, who are required to balance our budgets annually, could not address the immense financial need that has been created. Only the Federal Government could provide a sufficient amount of money to address some of these challenges.
In late March, the President signed the CARES Act which provides $2 trillion to assist residents, businesses and government. With this legislation and the prospect of further legislation ahead, my focus has been to ensure that we leave no dollar on the table.
Our City government has worked to assist residents and businesses to access the various funds that have been made available for their benefit. The legislation also created a $150 billion fund to assist state and local governments. Virginia will receive $3.3 billion of these funds. Jurisdictions with a population of 500,000 or more go directly to the Federal government and the remainder is distributed by the applicable state government.
1) Expenditures incurred as a result of the pandemic response.
2) Expenditures cannot already be in the City's budget (must be new spending)
3) The money must be utilized by the end of 2020
The City has already spent approximately $5 million in expenses that we believe will be eligible for these funds. The remainder of the funds are expected to be allocated in these priority areas:
- Public health staffing and capabilities
- Food assistance
- Residential rent assistance
- Small business assistance
While we have expended significant amounts of money to address this crisis, the largest financial impact on the City has been the loss of revenue. These funds are not allowed to replace the revenue that the City lost, but it will help us support the residents and businesses who are suffering during this time. Next month we will finalize an approach to these efforts and provide further information as to how the community will be able to access them.
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Remembering Joseph McCoy
These two men were two of thousands of Americans who became the victim of racial terror lynchings during a sad era in our history.
As we have worked over these past several years to broaden the perspective of history we recognize and interpret, coming to grips with our City's piece of this violent bigoted history is an essential undertaking.
The Equal Justice Initiative undertook an effort to develop a  comprehensive museum and memorial to reflect on our nation's history of racial inequality. The National Memorial of Peace and Justice opened over a year ago in Montgomery, Alabama as a result of this initiative.
The Office of Historic Alexandria has been working, along with committed volunteers, to plan this effort.
I hope you will take the time to get involved in this meaningful recognition of this horrific chapter in our history.
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 Host a Town Hall in Your Living Room! As Mayor, I am continuing my regular series of Town Hall Meetings.
You supply the living room and a bunch of your friends and neighbors. I will supply the Mayor who will hopefully have the answers to any of your questions about our City.
Just drop us a line and we'll get a Town Hall on the calendar! Thanks for the interest! |
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Upcoming Issues
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Learning More About Virginia Tech
Last month, the Virginia Tech Foundation and JBG Smith submitted conceptual design plans for the seven buildings that will comprise Phase of this effort. Two virtual community meetings were held late last month. In doing so, this new investment in our City will spur new job creation, catalyze redevelopment in Potomac Yard, Oakville Triangle and beyond, as well as open up new educational partnerships for our schools and non-profit organizations.
An accessory dwelling unit, affectionately known as a "granny flat" for its inter-generational living attributes, is an independent living unit attached or separate from an existing primary residence. Accessory dwelling units were originally identified in the City's Housing Master Plan in 2013  as a strategy to allow inter-generational living, provide supportive housing for disabled adults and support market-based housing creation. At our most recent Housing Summit, an Alexandria architect gave an interesting presentation on his effort to bring an ADU to his property nearby. You can watch the video online.
There will be some lane closures and disruption during the project, but the result should be significant improvement for the drivers and pedestrians in this well-trafficked corridor.
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sadly a preview for what is in store. With our current fiscal year ending on June 30th, the City was heading towards an expected surplus of $5 million - $10 million. 
