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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2012_tcmin0124COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, 7:30 p.m. Mayor Umstattd presiding. Council Members Present: David Butler, Thomas Dunn, II, Katie Sheldon Hammler, Fernando "Marty" Martinez, C. Terry Titus, Kevin Wright and Mayor Umstattd. Council Members Absent: None. Staff Present: Town Manager John Wells, Deputy Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Town Attorney Jeanette Irby, Deputy Director of Utilities Aref Etemadi, and Clerk of Council Lee Ann Green AGENDA ITEMS 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. INVOCATION: Council Member Dunn 3. SALUTE TO THE FLAG: Council Member Hammler 4. ROLL CALL: Showing all members present. 5. MINUTES a. Special Session Minutes of January 4 2012 On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the minutes of the January 4, 2012 special session were approved 6 -0 -1 pending correction of the vote on Mr. Titus' appointment (Titus abstaining). b. Work Session Minutes of January 9 2012 On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the minutes of the January 9, 2012 work session were approved 7 -0. 6. ADOPTING THE MEETING AGENDA On the motion of Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the meeting agenda was approved after moving item 9G from Consent. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Titus, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 7. PRESENTATIONS a. Proclamation - War of 1812: Never Forget On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Vice Mayor Wright, the following proclamation was approved unanimously. 1 Pa,,c COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 PROC"NAT /ON Bicentennial of the War of 1812• Never Forget WHEREAS, there was tension between Britain and America after the American Revolution that continued to grow; and WHEREAS, Britain worked with native Americans in Canada and the Northwest territories to hinder U.S. expansion; and WHEREAS, under the treaty ending the Revolutionary War and the Jay Treaty of 1794, the British were to withdraw soldiers from U.S. territories but they did not withdraw; and WHEREAS, even though the United States was neutral in the Napoleonic Wars, our shipping industry suffered greatly from being in the middle of the blockades between the British and the French and the British seized our ships forcing 10,000 American citizens to serve on their ships; and WHEREAS, President Thomas Jefferson and the Congress, desiring peace, passed an Embargo Act to stop British and French attacks on U.S. shipping, resulting in economic disaster for American merchants as they depended on trade with Europe; and WHEREAS, with the seizure of American ships and British aid to native Americans to fight our Northwest Territory expansion, Americans began to adopt the sentiments of John Clopton of Virginia: "...the outrages in impressing American seamen exceed all manner of description. Indeed, the whole system of aggression now is such that the real question between Great Britain and the United States has ceased to be a question merely relating to certain rights of commerce ... it is now clearly and positively and directly a question of independence, that is to say, whether the United States are really an independent nation; and WHEREAS, with the end of the war of 1812 came an "Era of Good Feelings" which opened a long period of peaceful relations between the United States and Britain that continues today. THEREFORE PROCLAEMED, by the Mayor and Council of the Town of Leesburg in Virginia that as we commemorate the Bicentennial of the War of 1812, we must remember that no war for American independence, sovereignty, and free trade should ever be forgotten and our citizens have the duty to recognize and appreciate that during the War of 1812, our National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner" was written. This banner became an important symbol of the American ideal of freedom, equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our national pride was restored and strengthened. PROCLAIMED this 24' day of January 2012. b. INOVA 100 Years On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Vice Mayor Wright, the following proclamation was approved unanimously. 2 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 PROCL NABON Inova Loudoun Hospital's 100 Year Anniversary 1912 to 2012 WHEREAS, 2012 marks the 100' Anniversary of Inova Loudoun Hospital, which first opened as Leesburg Hospital June 5, 1912 in a rented house on Market Street in Leesburg due to the efforts and vision of Mr. P. Howell Lightfoot, Dr. William C. Orr, Dr. John A. Gibson and Mr. Horace Littlejohn; and WHEREAS, in 1916 thirteen acres along Cornwall Street in Leesburg were purchased from the Harrison family for the new Loudoun Hospital which opened in April 1918; and WHEREAS, in response to the rapid growth in Loudoun County, in 1997 Loudoun Hospital expanded its services and moved to the current Lansdowne campus location; and WHEREAS, in 2003 Loudoun Hospital continued its commitment to Leesburg with the opening of the Cornwall Emergency Department; and WHEREAS, Inova Loudoun Hospital is now a 183 -bed, advanced acute -care hospital offering a full complement of health services in a variety of specialties on two campuses employing over 1,500 people; and WHEREAS, in 2010, Inova Loudoun Hospital provided services for 10,816 inpatients, 63,677 emergency room visits, 2,705 births and a vast range of outpatient ambulatory services to our community; and WHEREAS, a two year $32 million redevelopment project for the Inova Loudoun Leesburg Campus resulting in major upgrades in patient convenience, access to technology and building design began with a groundbreaking in July 2011 and is expected to be completed in 2013; and WHEREAS, Inova Loudoun Hospital continues give back to the community though their various initiatives, wellness programs and support of charitable organizations; and WHEREAS, Inova Loudoun Hospital is committed to serving our diverse community by not only expanding their services to meet the growing needs of the population, but also by expanding their locations to help break down access to healthcare barriers. THEREFORE, the Mayor and Council of the Town of Leesburg in Virginia hereby congratulate Inova Loudoun Hospital on the occasion of their 100 year anniversary and urge the citizens of the Town of Leesburg to join in the celebration of Inova Loudoun Hospital's 100 years of service to the community. PROCLAMIED this 24' day of January 2012. 3 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 8. PETITIONERS The petitioner's section was opened at 7:44 p.m. Dwight Dopilka, 210 Foxborough Drive. I wanted to let you all know that I was recently nominated to be the Leesburg Executive Airport Commission liaison between the Leesburg Executive Airport Commission and the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, so that is a position I have been nominated to and look forward to working on behalf of the commission and the airport. Milt Herd, 303 Riding Trail Court. I just wanted to offer a couple of observations on the economic development promotional film that Marantha unveiled at your business meeting a couple of weeks ago. Two things struck me. One, of course is that it was wonderful job. Really excellent effort and I commend her and her team for putting that together. The second thing that struck me was that with the exception of one brief image of the airport and one of the hospital, every single visual image of a street or image in that film was of the historic area of town even though that area only constitutes about 2% of our land area. What that tells me is that the economic development people in attempting to put the best foot forward of Leesburg are showing the town to be that collection of pedestrian friendly, human scale streetscapes that we all like so much and they used those images to represent the entire town. What that tells me is that good urban design, human scale streetscapes are a fundamental economic development resource. They are not an aesthetic luxury. They are an economic necessity in this service economy of Northern Virginia where we are competing against our neighbors to attract employers and employees who want to live in a good place. They go together. Employers attract employees; employees attract employers. I just hope that you all would recognize that and I think you did when you saw it. I think it struck you too. Keep that in mind in all of your policy making as you go forward. Good urban design, human scale streetscapes are what will help us maintain our competiveness economically. It will help grow our economic base and our tax base and make governing for you easier. So, just a couple of comments. I saw it the other day and then I went back on the web and looked at it a few more times and it really is a nice product. You should all be proud of it. The petitioner's section was closed at 7:49 p.m. 9. APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the following items were moved for approval as part of the Consent Agenda: a. Awarding the Construction Contract - Lower Sycolin Creek Sewage Conveyance System RESOLUTION 2012 -007 Awarding the Construction Contract for the Lower Sycolin Creek Sewage Conveyance System to Bay Country Enterprises, Inc., in the amount of $4,376,230 4 1 pa e COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 b. Amending the Design Contract — Lower Sycolin Sewage Conveyance System RESOLUTION 2012 -008 Approving Addendum No. 4 in the Amount of $211,426 to the Engineering Services Contract with Dewberry and Davis, LLC to Provide Construction Phase Services for the Construction of Lower Sycolin Sewage Conveyance System Project C. Design Contract Change Order — Battlefield Parkway — Route 15 to the Dulles Greenway RESOLUTION 2012 -009 Approving Change Order No. 3 for Design and Engineering Services on the Battlefield Parkway — Route 15 to Dulles Greenway Project in the Amount of $239,624 and Authorizing the Town Manager to Execute Change Order No. 3 d. Amending the Parks and Recreation FY 2012 Budget and Making a Supplemental Appropriation for the Raflo Park Bike Depot from Donations from Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and the Friends of the Washington and Old Dominion Trail RESOLUTION 2012 -010 Approving a Supplemental Appropriation of Donations Totaling $6,000.00 from the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and the Friends of the W &OD Trail e. Authorizing an Amendment to the Town Manager's Contract Dated January 11, 2012 RESOLUTION 2012 -011 Authorizing an Amendment to the Employment Contract Between the Leesburg Town Council and Town Manager John A. Wells Making an Appointment to the Utility Rate Advisory Committee (Butler) RESOLUTION 2012 -012 Making an Appointment to the Utility Rate Advisory Committee (Robinson) The Consent Agenda was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Titus, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 5 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 10. PUBLIC HEARINGS a. Amending the Town Code — Deleting Reference to the Airport Fund The public hearing was called to order at 8:01 p.m. Wells: Very briefly, Madam Mayor and Council Members, just to reiterate a few high points from last evening. Back in 1965, the town established by ordinance an airport enterprise fund, which is a separate and distinct set of books that are kept, but still part of the overall general governmental funds. That fund has been in operation since that time and as I indicated last evening, while there were probably very good motivations for the establishment of that fund at that point in time, over the past several years, it has become evident that the operation of the enterprise fund isn't meeting whatever goals might have been established at that point, since as we sit today rules and regulations have changed in terms of how accounting works for enterprise funds, specifically as relates to intergovernmental transfers and as we have noted... as I noted last evening some of the difficulties in terms of how we reference the enterprise fund in terms of its successful operation or not, has been the subject of a lot of discussion. I know the airport commission over the past couple of years has made several presentations to Council as we have attempted to get a good understanding of what the various bottom lines mean in the enterprise fund. As a result, my recommendation to you all based on a conversation that started last year when the auditors made some representations of changes we needed to make was that we would look in working with the airport commission of the possibility of eliminating the airport fund. Based on review with the state aviation administration, the FAA, our financial advisors, auditors and the endorsement of the airport commission, I am recommending to you that we would pass an ordinance that would eliminate that fund. I think the key points that we highlighted last evening was the elimination of that fund will not in any way take away from the visibility of how we can report expenditures and revenues. They will still be highlighted as a separate department in the budget and any level of reporting we wish to provide to the council and as we report quarterly now to the airport commission on the status of operations, I think everybody would find that reporting is complete, transparent and allows us to get to a bottom line without necessarily being encumbered by the establishment of an enterprise fund. That has been the main point that I tried to reflect last evening is while we are not trying to take away from that reporting, the key take away that we do have is in the establishment of the fund. It doesn't affect the town's tax rate, but it does allow for the elimination of a $3 million reservation on general fund balance that allows for those funds to be applied in such a way that I will be recommending and have a positive impact on the bottom line of the overall town budget as we look forward toward our long range pro forma of 2017. I think I will stop there at this point and answer questions. I know we went over this for some time last night and again I think those are the key points is from a financial perspective it doesn't change the town's operating position. It provides for a $3 million use of fund balance that will no longer be restricted and financial reporting, while not in the form of an enterprise fund is still complete and has all the information that you currently see today. There were no members of the public wishing to speak to this public hearing. The public hearing was closed at 8:05 p.m. 6 11a,, COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 Dunn: John, what is the debt that is at the airport currently that we are having to hold these funds in reserve for? What is the amount? Wells: These funds are not being held in reserve for debt service. Dunn: Oh, they are not? Wells: No, this has to do with basic operations over time. Dunn: And you having to hold these in reserve just because it is being called an enterprise fund, even if we are operating in the black? Wells: Even if you are operating in black, based on prior performance and based upon the ... if you recall the flyer I passed out to Council called the new fund balance. This is part of the regulations that change how the designations of undesignated funds or designated funds occur and how those relate to transfers between funds. It's a stimulating read, but this was not something that was in existence three years ago. Dunn: What was the purpose for them creating this new regulation? Wells: I can't comment politely in public as to why GASB set this up. There are a number of GASB regulations, and I am not being flippant. I don't believe this is a meaningful accounting change. From time to time, the governmental accounting standards board will put out regulations that we are required to follow and Council knows of several others that I have commented on over time. There is probably a good reason from an accounting standpoint that people feel this is necessary, but from what I have read and what I have looked at, as I have mentioned last evening, if I am asked by the public why that's here, the conditions that the town was in three years ago or two years ago, compared where they were at four or five years ago are no different, so because of an accounting change the town was required to indicate a reservation of $3 million in funds that was not required before because of how the books need to be maintained in the refinement of accounting regulations. I am not an accountant. Dunn: You mentioned it has something to do with past performance. Is there something that if we were to keep it in its current situation that we could do differently to improve the performance that would eliminate this $3 million hold? Wells: In the short term, no. I think the key is what we talked about last evening is making sure that the airport operates in the black. Actually, the number that is being reserved this year is less than the number reserved last year because we did have positive performance in the operating fund. So, in short, yes you can work your way out of this, but it is not a practical application of those funds because you are holding them over time. You have already paid the monies and when you combine the funds, you are in no different position than you would be ... you are paying yourself back. In my opinion, it's a disservice to the taxpayers of the town. 7 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 Dunn: Where would you... do you have an idea of where this $3 million would go? Wells: I am putting together a specific recommendation for a presentation on the budget. It will follow the fiscal policies. In general, it will apply toward capital or debt costs so that it will affect, in a positive way, the long term debt picture of the town. As you know, our pro forma looks toward 2017 when we have that ... tax rate is flat for a couple of years, then it goes up a penny for two years and then it goes up 3 cents in 2017 based on that long range plan. What we have committed is any decisions we can make to try to work those numbers down, we will do that. This presents an opportunity... these are one time funds, they are non - recurring so we would not use these to reduce operating costs, but they can be legitimately used to pay for capital projects that were already planned that have debt on them, or we could put them on the debt reserve fund which we established when we talked with the financial advisors as we worked toward that 2017 number. I don't have a specific recommendation other than to tell you that it will work toward that tax rate reduction long term. Dunn: There is no way of still considering the airport an enterprise without this fund? Wells: That's correct. What we can do though, and what I have certainly committed to Council and the Airport Commission is to bring a business like set of numbers to the airport commission on a regular basis. In reality, the way I present the information... perhaps I should say the way Mr. Berkey presents the information for us, we don't present it in the form of an enterprise fund and that has been the key point that we have worked with the commission for the past year. If you take that away, the things that the commission can control, more importantly, the things the council can control in terms of those items that affect the bottom line are what we manage and look at closely. We make business decisions in terms of the overall capital expenditures and again as we talked last evening making sure there is a good return in terms of how quickly those dollars can be paid back. Long story short, we can maintain the level of reporting without encumbering the $3 million and the enterprise fund provides no added value because we would never be issuing debt out of the airport enterprise fund. Dunn: So, the funds that are still owed by the airport for capital improvements, that is basically going to be absorbed... Wells: The council already did that as part of the adoption of the budget in the current year. Dunn: I just had a couple of comments. One, that I fully support the airport. This for me is a philosophical issue. Because to me, I'd rather see more things in government operate on an enterprise level. That it is responsible for, is an activity, is able to support itself and move forward as much as possible. Obviously there are some things that we just can't do that. It's tough for me to say yes, let's make this change because again I would rather see more of it, rather than less. It is often said government is not a business. Business is here for making money. The only thing government can do is make people pay more money. I would rather not see that happen either. Through lumping this in and then not seeing that it is going to go into poor management. I don't 8 1 Pa C COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 think that is going to happen. I think we have got a great commission that is going to make sure it doesn't happen. But again for me, this is a philosophical issue that I just don't like the idea of taking out enterprises that we have created. I would rather see us actually create more enterprises in town rather than reducing them. I think what it does, is it is about accountability. It is about accountability in government. It is a system whereby we are saying this is important enough for us that we would like to go ahead and go forward with an entity and we would like to be able to stand on it's own. I would like to see more of that. So, I fully support the airport. I just don't see where this is needed and I think that the importance that the state has placed on it saying that you have to hold these funds to the side because they also think that having an enterprise zone is worth ... if you are going to manage it well enough, as you said, those funds can be reduced. It may take a little time, but it makes us be accountable to the citizens about the tax dollars and not just saying well lets create more activities, more entities in town and we will just absorb them into the General Fund and it's tougher to keep track of them. I think it give special attention to the, in this case, the airport that it deserves and it gives us something to work towards as a future goal. So, it's tough for me to say let's get rid of this enterprise fund. Titus: I have some of the same reservations that Tom has. I won't elaborate more than what he has already done except to say I support the financial situation that John ... the resolution that John has advocated but I philosophically, I don't support him doing this. Wright: For simplicity's sake, I am going to go ahead and put a motion on the table, so we don't have to debate it twice. On a motion by Vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Council Member Butler, the following was proposed.• ORDINANCE 2012 -0 -002 To Repeal an Ordinance Adopted by the Town Council on June 21, 1965 Establishing the Airport Fund; to Amend the Town Code Chapter 6 (Aviation), Article 11 (Leesburg Executive Airport), Section 6- 22(a)(Fixed Base Operator License Fee) to state that Fixed Base Operator License Fees are to be Deposited in the General Fund and to State the Correct Section of the Rules and Regulations Applicable to Fixed Based Operator License Fees; and to Authorize Accounting Changes for Appropriations Made and Revenue Collected for the Leesburg Executive Airport and Airport Capital Projects Wright: As we talked about last, the Enterprise Fund, there are two things, the airport operating as an enterprise and then there is the accounting procedure that creates the enterprise fund. In my mind, those are two separate and distinct things. The accounting procedure that operates as that enterprise fund does not have anything to do with the daily operations of the airport and in fact generates more confusion. I know when I first started looking at the budget many years before coming onto Council, it took me a while as a normal citizen to figure out what's up with the transfers, what's up with the depreciation, why is there this huge number of depreciation when I could never find that the town spent this much money on anything because 95% of the capital costs were 9 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 borne by the federal and /or state government, yet we are depreciating for more than we spent. That kind of segways into the items we talked about last night. By taking some of the unnecessary enterprise accounting procedures that are not relevant to the airport fund, continuing to operate it as a department, giving its individual reporting so we still maintain that visibility, we as a council and we as a government and Joe and Jane Citizen are going to get more accurate reporting of the town's financial position with the airport. We are going to be better able to manage that fund as well as other funds that won't be unnecessarily encumbered, we are going to reduce the overhead expenses because we won't be managing a broader or separate accounting procedure that's not needed and for all of that, we are going to be able to maintain the visibility of the operating costs out of the airport and that includes the reporting of its revenue. I am confident that we are still going to be able to have that visibility and accountability of the airport to the town government, to the town citizens, to the taxpayers and reap the benefits. So, that's why I am supporting it. Butler: I think we really want to do this. I understand the potential concern about transparency and accountability, but as we have all stated on a number of occasions, we trust John and he is managing the town well and I expect that he will continue to do that and I expect that we will continue to ask him for the same level of transparency and accountability for the airport. The bottom line in layman's terms is we have $3 million sitting in a bank account doing nothing and it will continue to stay in the bank account doing nothing as long as the airport is an enterprise fund. If it is not an enterprise fund, then we can take that $3 million of taxpayer money and do something useful with it. So, I fully support this motion. Hammler: I wanted to thank everyone involved for bringing this forward to Council. Everyone on the Commission, the Chair and all the leadership we have here this evening, Kaj and John. I thought last night was an excellent discussion of Council. I will be supporting it. I appreciated the fact that we highlighted some of the key points that we as a Council are going to continue to look at because as Kevin has already mentioned, we will have plenty of oversight and visibility based on looking at the airport fund in the general fund and for me that's critical and we are going to zero in on that 5% where taxpayers are involved. Certainly the debt on the terminal coming up with some creative ways to generate more revenue if possible with that building. We will look forward to working cooperatively with the County. We talked a lot last night about the significant economic impact that the airport has regionally to the tune of $70 million and we are very happy that the entire county is the beneficiary of that, but we certainly look forward, Dwight, to getting you involved to make sure that the board might be able to convert some of that economic bottom line back toward helping to support directly things that happen at the airport. We will look forward to those further discussions. I, too, agree with the basic point that we are getting down to what's best for the taxpayers? Tying up $3 million when we could be paying down debt instead of paying on that debt. To me it is critical that we take this step forward. So, with that, I will be supporting it and I appreciate everybody's involvement getting us to this point. Martinez: The only comment that I have is that I echo what Kevin and other's have said about it. I support John fully on this and I will be supporting it. 10 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 Dunn: Is there a way of the $3 million going towards paying off what's owed at the airport once it becomes part of the general fund. Wells: The liability goes away automatically with the elimination of the fund. So, in essence, you are paying the fund back because now you have the ability to spend the dollars. There is not another way to do that. I would have already done that. Dunn: Just fishing. Again, we talk about all departments, the reporting of the airport fund will be there in the operations. We do that with every department. It's not like we are creating something new here that I can see. Every department is already doing individual reporting and how it operates in the fund. Wells: If I may, I think the airport commission sees a different level of detail at their commission meetings. They have asked... because this was a more challenging question a few years ago and it gets back to can I explain the fund, when it was an enterprise fund, I think we spent our first couple of years working together trying to sort out what was the bottom line, how to understand what we had there. We have worked on a set of reports and refined those that now go to the airport commission on a regular basis. Those are derivatives of what we see in the budget. We already do produce something more than what other departments create and that goes to the airport commission and I meet with them on a quarterly basis personally to go over that information along with Mr. Berkey and Mr. Dentler. We already have a higher level. That will continue. Again, that's why we don't have to create anything new. We are already doing an enhanced level of reporting. We are just freeing up those tax dollars to help the residents of the town. Dunn: In closing, I hate to have the expectation for success of any department or entity having be reduced to an accounting issue. That's what I feel like we are at here. What I am going to do in showing my support for the ... and I think the airport commission is one of our strongest commissions. I think they do a great job. In showing my support for the airport but my lack of support for this being an enterprise being taken out, I will go ahead and abstain on this, so you won't have a no vote, but I still wish we could find some way to keep this as an enterprise officially and work around it, but the rules is the rules, I guess. Wells: It is reduced to an accounting issue. Mayor: I will be supporting this. I think this is beneficial to the taxpayers. I am very supportive of the idea of taking those $3 million and using them to reduce our debt load in the town with the hopes that we won't have to raise taxes in the future. I think the budget is very transparent for all our departments. This will be treated, I assume, as another department with all disclosures of expenditures and revenues, so I think transparency will certainly be as good as it presently is, if not better, as Kevin alluded to. So, I don't have a problem supporting this, but I do sympathize with Terry's concerns and some of the things Tom has mentioned, but I think in the long run this is the best thing for the taxpayers, so I will support it. 11 Paz,c COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Hammler, Martinez, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: Titus Vote: 5-1-1 (Dunn abstaining) 11. RESOLUTIONS AND MOTIONS a. Amending Resolution 2010 -087 Making Councilmanic Appointments On a motion by Vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Council Member Martinez, the following was proposed: RESOLUTION2012 -013 Amending Council Resolution 2010 -087 Making Councilmanic Appointments to Fill Appointments Held by Mr. Kenneth Reid as Follows: Dulles Area Transportation Association (DATA) Representative, Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) Representative, Virginia Municipal League (VML) Transportation Committee Representative, and to Add Appointment of an Alternative Representative to NVRC Hammler: I would be very happy to support Council Member Martinez because I was not aware until last night that he was very interested in filling that post. I believe that Council Member Titus, in fact, would prefer because he is only here for a short period of time not to fill the Thomas Balch Library liaison role, so I am happy to continue to serve as required unless someone else would like to do that. I just wanted to make note on the NVRC. The rest, I think he will have to comment on relative to whether he is able and willing to drive to wherever the meetings are. Mayor: Katie, you are very gracious. Thank you very much. So, Katie is willing to continue with Balch. Marty will do NVRC. Then we have DATA, Dulles Area Transportation Association and VML's transportation committee and an alternate to VML ... an alternate to NVRC. Katie: Do they have to be official alternates, or can Marty for instance in the case of NVRC, just ask a councilmember if someone could fill in at that particular time? Mayor: I guess the last time we did this, we officially voted on an alternate as well. Butler: Well someone is currently an alternate then, since Ken was not ... so whoever is currently the alternate should stay the alternate. Mayor: Unless Katie wants it. Does anybody want to be alternate? NVRC meets, I think it's the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 or 7 ... it's at 7. The meetings usually last about 2 hours. They are down near the intersection of the beltway and Route 50. It takes an hour and 15 minutes to drive down there at that time and about 45 minutes to drive back. Is anyone interested in being an alternate. I think it's heroic that Katie and Marty were willing to step up to the plate and be the primary. 12 1 Pa —e COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 Hammler: I'm sure Marty will be attending the meetings, but I would be happy to be the official alternate as required assuming there isn't someone who already is the alternate to Council Member Butler's point, but nobody is stepping forward to say who he or she is. Mayor: Alright, then we will have Marty in as the primary and Katie in as the alternate for NVRC. Is anyone interested in the Dulles Area Transportation Association? Titus: When do they meet? Mayor: They usually meet in the mornings and I don't know where they are meeting now. It is generally in the Dulles area. Sometimes it's EIT, but sometimes at Dulles Airport, but I am not sure. We would have to find out. Alright, Terry will do that for the short term for DATA. Then we have got VML, the transportation committee. Butler: Without objection from the council, I wouldn't mind doing that. Martinez: I was going to volunteer because I didn't think anybody was going to ask for it, but since Dave has picked it up, that's fine. Butler: Sounds like Marty would love to be the alternate. Martinez: Yes, I will be the alternate. Butler: Is it okay that we add the liaison to the URAC committee? I would like to nominate Terry, per our conversation last night. Mayor: So, Terry is nominated as liaison to URAC. Dunn: (inaudible). Mayor: So, we have got Tom in for DATA and Terry as liaison for URAC. I think we have sorted everything out. Dunn: Could I ask to divide the URAC question? Mayor: Sure, we will vote on URAC separately. The motion to amend Resolution 2010 -087 was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Titus, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 b. Appointing a Councilmanic Liaison to the Utility Rate Advisory Committee On a motion by Vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Council Member Martinez, the following was proposed.• 13 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 MOTION2012 -002 I move to appoint C. Terry Titus as Councilmanic Representative to the Utility Rate Advisory Committee Dunn: This has nothing to do with Terry. I hope you do a great job there. One, I just didn't think that we needed a liaison to a committee versus a commission. Secondly, I would rather again that we were focusing on the Council being out of the utility business and send it to an authority, so it's hard for me to then say I want to have Council representation on the URAC. I have to oppose the position, not the man. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Hammler, Martinez, Titus, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: Dunn Vote: 6 -1 C. Legislative Agenda On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the following was proposed.• MOTION2012 -003 I move that the following item be added to the Town's 2012 Legislative Positions Statement: Identification of Candidates by Political Party on Local Election Ballots. The Town Council opposes legislation that would require candidates in local elections to be identified on the ballot by political party. Local issues are best addressed in a cooperative, non-partisan manner. The Town Council believes that nothing is gained by making local elections partisan. Butler: I think that requiring local elections to be partisan is absolutely the wrong direction for not only local government but for the state and the country. I think we need to be focused on being less partisan, not more partisan so I would hope that the General Assembly would see reason and at worst case, make it optional. Hammler: I would like to make a friendly amendment to simply call out that this proposed legislation would negatively impact citizens who work full time for federal agencies due to the Hatch Act. Wright: I wholeheartedly agree with this position as a willful, bullheaded independent. I don't see any value into making the local elections partisan and with our recent efforts through our charter amendment to make sure that we maintain the nonpartisan nature of our local elections, I don't think we want to revert against that. Dunn: I am not sure why we even have this motion. I thought we already adopted this in our legislative agenda. No? I thought we did. But my view is that I am going to go 14 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 ahead and support it because I believe this is the true position, but frankly the partisan ship is kind of like religion. It is with each one of us at a measured level. Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you may take it, partisan ship does exist in local elections. There is partisan... there are council members sitting right here that have sought party endorsement and it is out there. Unfortunately I feel that it is a veil that many of us hide behind being able to go out to the public and say we are nonpartisan when oh yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and oh yes, Virginia there is partisanship. I will support it as a token gesture, but partisanship is alive and well in the Town Council. Martinez: I am really tempted to make some closing comments, but I think I will go for the vote instead. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Titus, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 7 -0 On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the following was proposed: MOTION 2012 -004 I move that the following item be added to the Town's 2012 Legislative Positions Statement: Equalizing City and County Taxing Authority The Town Council supports legislation that would grant counties the same taxing authority as cities. Granting Loudoun County the authority to enact a meals tax or a cigarette tax could reduce the burden on residential real estate taxes, which are paid by Town residents who are also county residents, as well as County residents. Martinez: One comment that I wanted to make on the motion ... I don't know where it fits in protocol, but the last line where we say paid by town residents, maybe put in paratheses "who are also county residents" to show we are both. Butler: I accept that. I just think that the board of supervisors has voted twice on this and I think they had it right the first time. This can actually ... it is additional tools in the toolbox that would allow Loudoun County to actually reduce the total taxation on its residents, not increase it. This would be a good thing and eliminate our competitive disadvantage in the couple of areas. Wright: The only other comment I would add, again to build on what Dave said, this does give Loudoun County another tool in the toolbox. I think it helps level the playing field for them. A lot of folks point to the referendums that have previously failed on the meals tax. Both of those referendums had strings attached as far as where those dollars would be spent. I know I personally had an objection that I don't want them spent to that string, I want them to go to the General Fund to reduce the overall tax liability. I think this is something, if nothing else, to give the county the same ... to treat everybody 151 Pa)c COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 differently doesn't make sense. To give the county the authority. They are accountable to their voters ... their residents and I don't see a harm in equalizing this. I think it creates a fair discussion and level the revenue. All you have to do is look at the county budget and the percentage of the budget that comes solely from real property tax and that is whatever the market happens to have been that year. That tax hits you much harder than the meals tax would hit you. The other thing is, just to use a single example, the food courts at Dulles Airport are in Loudoun County. Titus: I support this. I was just wondering last night, what is the reverse of this. What taxes does the county have that we don't have? Is there any difference? This ought to be a two way street, in my opinion. If they have taxes that we can't use, then maybe we ought to bargain for that. Wells: Not in terms of general taxation. The town has always had, similar to cities, with the enactment of the meals tax and the tobacco tax. Those are two taxes that the county does not have. The only thing that the county has that the town doesn't have from a taxing authority is unique to having the court system and the clerk's office because you have recordation taxes. We don't have a function that fits in, but in terms of general taxation, we have the same real and personal property taxes, sales tax. Now the formula between the county and town is different on how we get sales tax and we would definitely be in favor of point of sale, but that's a different battle for a different time. Right now, we have more authority than the county does. Titus: I don't want to get in a big battle, but if we could take a lick of that recording tax, that would be a big number. Wells: We don't have a recording function. But we could ask for a cut of it. Titus: That's what I'm saying. Wells: That's a different motion. Dunn: I asked Jeanette for clarification. I thought it was, but it is creating the ability for the county to have a new tax. I guess I am on my philosophical soap box tonight, but I really can't support... one, I'll leave it to the county to do the county's business. I really can't support another tax going forward, so I'll have to pass on this one. Mayor: I'll be supporting this. One of the media outlets pointed out the degree to which the various towns in Loudoun would have to raise their real property tax rate if we didn't have meals tax and it would be significant for all the towns. I do believe that having a meals tax or cigarette tax in Loudoun County would allow the Board of Supervisors to reduce the real property tax and I think that's a goal that most of us can support. I will be voting for this tonight. Martinez: One, I am not in favor of taxes, but when I look at equity, I think this provides more equity to town and county. What comes to mind, when I was reading this was when I first came on Council, we were talking about raising the meals tax and 161 P a ; e COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 we got a lot of opposition and I didn't quite understand it until I was talking to a caterer who said that if we raise the meals tax, he is at a competitive disadvantage because then people who would normally come into the town would nudge them over enough that his customers would go to the county because they didn't have a meals tax and the savings would overcome whatever logistics the customers have, so when I thought about that and when I was looking at this, one of the things that came to mind is that the current situation puts our town businesses at a disadvantage with county businesses, but also this is more of a fair tax in that a lot of revenue will not come from actual county or town residents, but from people who come to the county that uses, for example, a great point is the Wegman's. I mean they come to the town ... it would also be as Kevin mentioned and I was going to bring it up ... Dulles Airport. There is a lot of revenue going through there that could be generated. What I am looking at is how does this improve our town's competitive advantage or at least puts it on par with the county, but also how the county can use this additional revenue to lower our county taxes. One of the things that you and I and other members of this council have always been cognizant of is that our town even though we have a fantastic town and our services are top of the line, we still pay county taxes along with the town taxes and we would like to see a fairer way of distribution of those tax dollars. What I would hope this does is give the County Board of Supervisors reinforcement and they go back to their original position in supporting this. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye.- Butler, Hammler, Martinez, Titus, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: Dunn Vote: 6 -1 On a motion by Council Member Butler, seconded by Council Member Martinez, the following was proposed.• MOTION2012 -005 I move that the following item be added to the Town's 2012 Legislative Positions Statement: SB 316 — Distance Based Tolling on the Dulles Greenway The Town Council opposes legislation that would require the Dulles Greenway to implement distance based tolling. Butler: You may be able to look at Loudoun County as a whole and say okay it may or may not be a good thing, that's debatable. But it would definitely be a bad thing for Leesburg because if you make the shorter routes less costly, then to make the whole thing revenue neutral, which the bill would allow the SCC to do, then the long distances would become more expensive and that would affect everybody in Leesburg and all points west, everybody who gets on the Greenway at the beginning would end up paying even higher tolls. As much as I am friendly to people who live in Ashburn, I am getting paid by the Town of Leesburg, so I think we need to oppose this so the Dulles Greenway does not get even more outrageous than it is. 17 1 P COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 Mayor: I personally agree with your position and would take that but I need to ask Jeannette whether this is something that would require a suspension of the rules, whether it is simply an amendment to a legislative agenda that was already on the agenda tonight or if this is a new item. I did not expect to be voting on this tonight, but I would like your take on it. Irby: I believe it is up to the chair. I could see either way. If Madam Chair wants to allow it. Butler: I might suggest that the way this is worded in the agenda, it implies that there was a single motion on the legislative position statement. Mayor: I will accept it as an amendment. Council Members who disagree with that are welcome to make a motion to overrule the chair's ruling. Hammler: I appreciate Dave bringing this forward. The thing that occurred to me as another negative impact for Leesburg is with the tolls being so high here, I can see where our secondary roads would have even greater congestion with everyone trying to take as many other roads as possible to get to a cheaper place to get down the toll road. In other words, all of our residential streets would bear the burden of this. Wright: In general, I have shied away from getting too involved with the Greenway, but I think Dave brings up a very good point. The way this is worded, I can immediately see either the unintended or unrealized consequence of if you want distanced based pricing, fine. It's 50 cents at the start and six bucks at the end. So, I think they need to look at a broader, more comprehensive way of approaching it, but not allowing billboards on the Greenway either. We went through a lot of effort to get rid of them. Dunn: I would have rather this been discussed last night. These things come up at our meeting without a whole lot of discussion or information. I really wish we had more information on it before voting on it tonight. It seems like in the past when certain members bring something up on the dais the night of the meeting, it gets shot down and when other members bring it up the night of the meeting, it gets accepted. I am going to abstain on this, because I wish we had actually discussed it so we could get some more information on it. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Hammler, Martinez, Titus, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 6-0-1 (Dunn abstaining 12. ORDINANCES a. None. 13. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. None. 18 Pad COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 14. NEW BUSINESS a. None. 15. COUNCIL COMMENTS Council Member Dunn: The only thing I would mention is that in referencing the County taxes, the citizens of Leesburg are paying more in taxes, not because of what the County is doing, but because of what we are doing. We are the ones that are charging our citizens more in taxes. By allowing the county to raise taxes up to our level, I don't think is putting Leesburg in a more competitive light. We should be considering how we can lower our taxes down to help our citizens. By the way, if some people are staying away or chose not to eat meals in Leesburg because of the meals tax, and there may be some people out there doing that. Anyway, it's us who are charging the additional taxes, not the county. Council Member Titus: The only comment I had is I read an interesting article on Dr. Littlejohn and his pharmacy, etc. in Leesburg Today and I noticed tonight they mentioned Dr. John Gibson, both of which are people that I knew as a little boy. It's so heartening to look at the town today as it looked 70 years ago or 50 years ago or 100 years ago and see that it hasn't changed a great deal. I feel very strongly about that. Vice Mayor Wright: No additional comments. Council Member Martinez: I hope everybody has a great Superbowl Sunday. Council Member Hammler: A couple of very quick things. As I was reflecting on 100 years of INOVA being here, I was thinking about how wonderful it was to give birth to my two children. With that, the thought that our children couldn't be from Leesburg unless there were a hospital in Leesburg. I am just very happy that they are here and they have done so much in their wonderful partnership with us. I just want to mention that I did ping our Board of Supervisor Representative, Ken Reid, specifically about the fact that apparently the Sheriff will not put resources out by the Park and Ride. There is so much traffic at some key times that it is dramatically impacting businesses up and down Sycolin let alone folks that live in residential neighborhoods trying to get onto Sycolin and simply aren't able to do it and it is going to take us a while to get that light. Trying to get some pressure to get some Sheriff resources to at least moderate that traffic flow and provide some relief. One key thing that was on our agenda is Mr. Wells' contract extension. I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you, John, for your willingness to continue your excellent level of service to the town, so thank you. Finally, just a minor point, but every time I go past the entry way signs that welcome everyone to Leesburg and the one most recently has mentioned please come see our historic downtown. I keep saying to myself, I wish it said shop. I wish it had a more active verb. Not just drive by and don't stop. It's just four letters. Hopefully it fits. Council Member Butler: Just a couple of quick things. One is that a couple of weeks ago, earlier this month, Mary Harris passed away. The Harris family has been here a long time and Mary was a great lady and had a very interesting life. I found out, so I would just like to express my condolences to the family and remember her. There 19 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 was an article in Time a couple of weeks ago about comparison of inequality within a community or within a state and how well their economy does and the conclusion based on the data was the more equal citizens were on average, that the better the economy does. I am happy to say while we certainly have what some would call significant inequality in Leesburg and Loudoun County, it is significantly below average. In fact, among some of the lowest in the country is the whole belt between us and around Washington and down to Richmond. Probably related to US Government jobs and I think that is reflected in the relatively low unemployment rate that we also have in the area. Virginia as a whole seems to be near the middle. That's some good news for where we live. Last, but not least, the members of the Public Art Commission are down in Richmond encouraging our legislators to fund the arts. 15. MAYOR'S COMMENTS I don't have any comments. 16. MANAGER'S COMMENTS There were some emails over the past two weeks regarding two areas in town. One was on Liberty Street here near Town Hall. The other was in some neighborhoods in Valley View. Just to be sure we got the same information out to everybody and where we are at with those projects. Liberty Street, we did inspect that street. I walked it with Staff myself in terms of looking at some of the trip hazards as one of the residents had indicated that was becoming fairly dangerous. Given the weather conditions, we are not able to do a regular maintenance project out there, but we were able to patch the trip hazards with some cold patch and those are ... I can attest personally they are in a safe condition right now. When the spring weather comes, we will do a more thorough sidewalk repair project that is warranted in that area. Expect to see that in the spring, but from a safety perspective, we are in good shape right now. The second was at Valley View. We will be looking at that a little bit deeper. The challenge at Valley View is the town doesn't control any of the pieces of ground that connect all the parts of the sidewalk that don't come together. Right now, you have got a lot of things pointing toward each other, but not connecting logically. We will be looking at that. Our goal is to try to make that a maintenance project. I think it makes a lot sense to do that. There are some illogical signs that need to be cleared up. We will take care of that along with some other things out there that are supposed to be there to help, but I am not sure they help as much as they are designed to. So, we will clean that up, but the main thing we are going to focus on are trying to nail down the easements that are needed out there. That will determine whether this needs to be a Capital Project or a maintenance project. Hopefully we can keep it as a maintenance effort. We will need to get an agreement with the regional park authority and we will be able to give you a report back on that after we do a little bit of work with Staff and run down the ownership issues with the ground. It should not be an excessively large project so we will take a look at that. Titus: Where is that, John? Wells: I don't have the exact street numbers. I can get those to you tomorrow, Terry. 20 1 Pa - e COUNCIL MEETING January 24, 2012 Titus: It's not the one up by Catoctin Circle, is it? It's the one down near the railroad track? I mean the trail. Wells: I wanted to highlight for Council that the budget presentation for this coming year will be on Monday, February 13. The next work session, we will get the budget presented to us. We do have an extra week. Don't come in two weeks, come in three because nobody will be here two weeks out. We do have the extra week built in. So, February 13 we will be doing the budget presentation that evening. I wanted to also invite any Council Members. The Chamber of Commerce is having their annual lunch this Thursday. When last I checked, Congressman Wolf had indicated he would be speaking. I want to confirm that. The Town did not reserve a table, as we noted for budgetary reasons. For some of the reasons, we have just reserved seats. If anybody is interested, and I'll confirm in an email who the speaker for the luncheon is. That's this Thursday and I will be driving down if anybody wants to carpool. The Mayor has indicated she will be there. If anybody else would like to come, let me know. Finally, we have been mentioning the request of the county to establish some type of courts committee. That hasn't come officially as a full county request. It was indicated as something that came up from Judge Horne and certainly emphasized by Chairman York. I think that the appropriate thing to do at this point would be to ask for the county to send us something in writing from the entire board of supervisors indicating that is a direction they would like to pursue. If Council is amenable, if that is a topic you would like to include in your joint meeting lunch. If they want to present information, they can. Maybe we should just see the letter first, before we add it to the agenda. Unfortunately, we don't meet again until that February 13 meeting, so I will use my judgment and see what we get back. 17. CLOSED SESSION None. 18. ADJOURNMENT On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council Member Butler, the meeting was adjourned at 8:52 p.m. Kristen C. TJmstattd, Mayor Town of Leesburg •r t 2012 tcmin0124 21 1 Page