The Council Connection
your connection to City Council by Mayor Justin M. Wilson
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Putting CARES Act Money To Work |
By the end of this month, we will have fully expended the $13.9 million that the City received. We are optimistic and hopeful that the Governor will move quickly to allocate the second tranche of money to address the significant need that remains.
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. The remaining portion of these funds is where the City's allocation is drawn from.
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 $7 million in expenses that we believe will be eligible for these funds. During this month, we will fully obligate the remainder of the funds 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. The CARES Act 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.
I am still optimistic that Federal policymakers will arrive on an approach that addresses the significant lost revenue that the City and other jurisdictions around our nation have experienced.
At this point, this legislation does not seem likely to pass the Senate. I'm hopeful that legislation with the support of both houses and the President will soon be enacted to support local governments during this time.
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Virginia Tech Innovation Campus |
An idea that was once just a few bullets on a slide, is now becoming reality as the future economic engine for Potomac Yard.
Next month, Dr. Lance Collins, currently the Dean of Engineering at Cornell University, will begin work as the leader of the new Innovation Campus. Dr. Collins has led Cornell's College of Engineering for the past decade and was instrumental in building Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island in New York City.
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.
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This decision, while sad and unfortunate for our students, was a necessity brought about by the public health crisis that has been facing our community since that time.
The Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) immediately made the transition to virtual learning. Students, educators, support staff and parents have spent the past few months making the best out of a bad situation. I stand in awe of the educators in our school system who have worked tirelessly to continue educational progress under difficult conditions.
While the decision to close schools was a difficult one, it was rather binary. Once it was clear school buildings could not remain safely open, they were closed.
There is no question that policymakers influencing school decisions want to see our students back in school. As a parent of two ACPS students myself, I share that desire. The health benefits of students being in school together are considerable. Yet, I also recognize that the public health challenge we are facing is quite real, exacerbates existing inequality, and requires engagement with all stakeholders prior to committing to a particular reopening approach.
Over the next few weeks, ACPS will engage with all stakeholders to get input on the variants of school reopening, ranging from a "normal" in-person opening to a fully-virtual opening, and a hybrid approach.
Next month, ACPS will settle on an approach to move forward.
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I have now been a part of adopting ten City budgets as a member of the Council. Each year, I try to find new ways to engage residents in the process, and increase transparency and understanding of budget priorities and trade-offs.
Modeled after the Federal Taxpayer Receipt, this website will take the assessed value of your home and detail how much of your real estate tax is going to the various programs and services of City government.
We entered Fiscal Year 2021 this morning. Accordingly, we have updated the receipt to reflect the newly enacted budget. Give it a try and let me know how you like it!
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New Space To Serve The Public |
Many times in this newsletter, I have written about the City's ongoing efforts to address the miserable condition of many of our municipal facilities. A component of those efforts has been working to identify areas of potential consolidation among our City facilities.
The Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) is one of the City's largest departments with over 600 full time equivalent employees, and a budget of over $100 million. The department provides the critical safety net services that so many of our residents rely on at various points in their lives.
DCHS, together with the City's Health Department occupy 210,000 square feet of space in 8 different facilities around the City. Most of the space is inadequate, aged, and not proximate to the residents its serves. Over half of DCHS clients are on the West End, yet two of our largest offices are in the East End of the City.
This new location will enable full consolidation of these two departments and improve service delivery for the residents served by these important services.
While the City and IDA negotiated a 15 year lease, it included several points where the City could exercise the ability to purchase the building, which could save the City millions more in avoided lease payments.
The purchase option would cost the City $58.7 million. The negotiated lease is for 15 years (with an annual escalation), with the first year rent totaling a little over $7 million. The purchase option will save the taxpayers of the City over $18 million over the next 15 years.
The Planning Commission considered last month whether such a purchase would be consistent with the City's Master Plan. Later this month the Council will consider whether to proceed with the purchase.
Ultimately the consolidation will avoid greater costs, improve the effectiveness of services delivered and make those services more accessible to our residents.
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Long-Term Care Facilities |
While all of our residents are susceptible to infection, throughout the COVID-19 crisis, attention has been focused on particularly vulnerable populations.
Throughout the world, senior residents living in long-term care facilities and other congregate-living arrangements have been hard-hit by this virus.
These facilities have been home to heroic staff who have risked their own wellness, and that of their families', to protect the safety and welfare of the patients in their responsibility.
Due to a patchwork of laws, competition and other constraints, patients, their families and the staff that serve them have sometimes struggled to get good information on the extent of the infection in individual facilities.
This data showed that in Alexandria, roughly half of the COVID-19 deaths in the City were the result of infections at one of three Long-Term Care facilities.
While the release of this data provided greater transparency to the public, it was not news to the public health officials serving Alexandria. Our staff has been working closely with these facilities, following our Long-Term Care Facility Framework, to provide testing, support of staff, supplies and other assistance during this crisis.
There is certainly more work to do to protect all of our vulnerable populations. The newly public information highlights the need and the difficult work ahead.
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Data for an Accountable Government |
Over a year ago, the City unveiled our public Performance Dashboard, allowing the residents of our City to assess the performance of critical City services based on meaningful performance metrics.
With that data available, it's important for the Council and public to review performance periodically.
Providing accountable results to the residents of Alexandria for their tax investment is a role of government. To support that accountability, government must have good data. We have now made another large step forward as we work to better collect more relevant data to measure how we provide City services.
Our previous City Manager, Rashad Young, then created the Office of Performance and Accountability (OPA). OPA was designed as an internal consultancy to implement performance improvement and efficiency throughout city government operations.
Five years ago we took the next step, as OPA unveiled the first draft of our regular Performance Reports. These reports cover each of the service areas of the City's Strategic Plan. They provide the performance and quality measures that are expected of City departments, while assisting the Council and City management to make good, data-driven decisions about those services.
While identifying and reporting the metrics to measure the services we provide is an important innovation, we have a long way to go. We must improve the quality of our data, increase the frequency of when it is reported, and use the data to make better decisions about how we allocate resources. I look forward to continued progress in this area.
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Keeping Alexandrians Housed |
With this precipitous increase in unemployment throughout our City, our residents have been faced with challenges in paying their rent. While evictions had been deferred due to the closure of Virginia's courts, our residents who are out of work are incurring overdue rent, late fees and other expenses that will burden them even once they are able to go back to work. Starting last week, the General District Court in Alexandria is beginning to again hear these eviction cases.
Too many of our residents are facing the choice between complying with public health restrictions, and paying their rent.
For eligible residents, who have had their employment impacted by this crisis and meet eligibility requirements, the City is provided up to $600/month, for up to 3 months to assist.
This will not solve all of the economic challenges that are impacting our residents, but we are hoping it will help keep residents afloat during this time.
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Getting Alexandria Back To Business |
It is still too early to take stock of the full economic impact of COVID-19 and the resulting public health restrictions, but it is safe to say that Alexandria businesses have suffered a devastating blow.
Alexandria small businesses, particularly those in the service economy, employ many of our residents who live dangerously close to poverty. Supporting these businesses helps us support our residents. In many cases, these residents are those who did not qualify for some of the Federal assistance that has been available recently.
We have worked with businesses to access Federal grants and lending. We have made a variety of regulatory changes to support the transition of our businesses to a "new normal."
As we now continue reopening, the City is awarding the grants from the Alexandria Back to Business Grant Program. This program, utilizing a portion of the City's Federal CARES Act funding, is providing grants to Alexandria businesses that have been impacted by COVID-19.
Over 300 businesses were awarded a total of $3.5 million in grants that will be distributed over the next few days and weeks.
The grants, of up to $20,000, are designed to support the investments that our businesses must make to adjust. Designed to fund the purchase of PPE, health and safety equipment, cleaning services, etc. Anything that helps ease a business' transition to this new environment will be considered for this program.
Ultimately, Alexandria needs our small businesses to survive. While we cannot solve the economic dislocation caused by this crisis, we are working to help our businesses change and thrive.
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New Transit To Serve Our City |
Transit Corridor B, as it was previously known, will be the final corridor implemented. With planning money awarded last year, the City will conduct community engagement later this year to update the decade-old plans for this transit service.
A little over a decade ago, the City adopted its latest Transportation Master Plan. At the time, the plan was a significant transition in that it shifted to a plan that prioritized transit.
One of the most significant changes that came from the 2008 Master Plan was the designation of three transit corridors for high-capacity transit. The three corridors were Transit Corridor A, which was nominally north to south on Route 1 on the east end of the City, Transit Corridor B, which was intended as east to west on Duke Street and Transit Corridor C, which was north to south on the west end of the City using Van Dorn and Beauregard.
High capacity transit provides our residents with alternatives to congestion and delay. I am optimistic that we will be able to bring these projects to reality.
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In the late 1990s the City of Alexandria had a ban in place on firearms being carried within public facilities (recreation centers, libraries, City Hall, etc). The administrative regulation survived court challenge in 1999.
I do not believe that firearms have a place in City facilities, except in the hands of our public safety personnel. I am appreciative that the General Assembly saw fit to give local government the authority to make these decisions in our local communities.
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Paid for by Wilson For Mayor | www.justin.net |
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