HomeMy Public PortalAbout2023_tcwsmin1211Council Work Session December 11, 2023
Council Chamber, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia, 7:00 p.m. Mayor Kelly Burk
presiding.
Council Members Present: Ara Bagdasarian, Zach Cummings, Kari Nacy, Vice Mayor Neil
Steinberg, Patrick Wilt, and Mayor Kelly Burk.
Council Members Absent: Todd Cimino -Johnson.
Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Town Attorney Christopher Spera, Deputy
Town Manager Keith Markel, Director of Finance and Administrative Services Clark Case,
Economic Development Director Russell Seymour, Community Development Director
James David, Deputy Director of Finance and Administrative Services/Treasurer Lisa
Haley, Economic Development Assistant Director Melanie Scoggins, Customer Service
Center Manager Evan Harlow, Small Business Development and Tourism Specialist Allison
Wood, Clerk of Council Eileen Boeing, and Deputy Clerk of Council Lyndon Gonzalez
Minutes prepared by Deputy Clerk of Council Lyndon Gonzalez.
AGENDA ITEMS
1. Items for Discussion
a. Financial State of the Town and Upcoming Financing Plan Requirements
Mr. David Rose, Financial Advisor with Davenport & Company, presented
Council with the annual financial state of the Town and upcoming financing plan
requirements.
Council and staff discussed the item. Mr. Rose will return in January to
request that Council approve the issuance of debt financing, as presented.
No further action requested by Council.
b. Establishment of a Business Assistance Team
Mr. Evan Harlow presented Council with a presentation on establishing a Business
Assistance Team for the Town.
Council and staff discussed the item.
It was the consensus of Council to establish a Business Assistance Team. Staff will return
in January to provide Council with their proposed outline of the Team.
c. Virginia Main Street Program - Quarterly Update
Ms. Allison Wood presented Council with an update on the Virginia Main
Street Program. The Town received additional funds from the State in the amount of
$5,500 for the Community Vitality Grant.
No further action requested by Council.
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Council Work Session December 11, 2023
2. Additions to Future Council Meetings
a. Proclamation Requests
i. There were no proclamation requests.
6. Additions to Future Council Meetings
None.
3. Closed Session
a. Annexation with respect to the Joint Land Management Area (JLMA)
MOTION 2023-197
On a motion by Mayor Burk, seconded by Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg, the following was
proposed:
I move pursuant to § 2.2-3711(A)(8) of the Code of Virginia and § 2.2-3711(A)(3) of the
Code of Virginia that the Leesburg Town Council convene in a dosed meeting for the
purpose of consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members regarding specific
legal matters related to the annexation in the JLMA where such consultation in open session
would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the Town.
The motion was approved by the following vote:
Aye: Bagdasarian, Cummings, Nacy, Vice Mayor Steinberg, Wilt and Mayor
Burk
Nay: None
Vote: 6-0-1 (Cimino -Johnson absent)
Council convened in a closed meeting at 8:14 p.m.
Council took a recess from 8:14 p.m. — 8:20 p.m.
Council convened in an open meeting at 9:00 p.m.
MOTION 2023-198
On a motion by Mayor Burk, the following was proposed:
In accordance with Section § 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, I move that Council certify
to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from
open meeting requirements under Virginia Freedom of Information Act and such public
business matters for the purpose identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was
convened were heard, discussed or considered in the meeting by Council.
The motion was approved by the following roll call vote:
Wilt — aye, Bagdasarian — aye, Nacy — aye, Vice Mayor Steinberg — aye, Cummings — aye,
Mayor Burk — aye. Vote: 6-0-1 (Cimino -Johnson absent)
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Council Work Session
December 11, 2023
4. Adjournment
On a motion by Vice Mayor Steinberg, seconded by Council Member Nacy, the meeting was
adjourned at 9:01 p.m.
Clerk of Council
2023 mwsminl211
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December 11, 2023 - Leesburg Town Council Work Session
(Note: This is a transcript prepared by a Town contractor based on the video of the meeting. It
may not be entirely accurate. For greater accuracy, we encourage you to review the video of
the meeting that is on the Town's Web site - www.leesburgva.gov or refer to the approved
Council meeting minutes. Council meeting videos are retained for three calendar years after a
meeting per Library of Virginia Records Retention guidelines.)
Mayor Kelly Burk: Just for the record everyone is present with the exception of Mr. Council Member
Cimino -Johnson. And he's not, he's not calling in tonight?
Eileen Boeing: He is not.
Mayor Burk: Okay. Alright, our first item for discussion tonight is the financial state of the Town and
the upcoming financial plan requirements. Mr. Rose, how nice to see you.
David Rose: Nice to see you Mayor, Members of Council, appreciate the opportunity. We've got a big
presentation, but I'm going to go very quickly because I know you've got a whole lot of things in front
of you, so I appreciate it.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Rose did ask for 20 minutes if anybody has any objection.
Unidentified Speaker: 20 minutes? [laughter)
David Rose: I'm going to see if I can beat that by a few seconds if not more, we'll see. Having said
that the important thing for those of you who have just met me, or have seen me just a few times, we
are your financial advisor. I've had the good fortune of working for over 25 years with the Town, and
my goal tonight is to try to educate the Town on what you look like in terms of your fiscal year, some
strategies going forward for things that you've already approved in terms of capital, and just to talk
about overall where the Town stands.
There's a series of goals and objectives for this comprehensive financial review. We want to let you
know that we have looked at the Town closely, its finances. We know there's certain challenges facing
the Town over the next several years, but you enter that in very strong position and I want to make
that clear. All three of the rating agencies have you as AAA, the highest possible. We want to make
sure we do nothing to change that in moving forward.
Let me just give you a very short glimpse of the overall financial results. I understand that Mr. Case is
going to go into that in more detail tomorrow evening. You have done, once again in 2023, a
structurally balanced budget. Your revenues exceeded your expenditures on an annualized basis and
overall, you are able to add some five plus million to what we'll call your unassigned fund balance or
your rainy -day fund. So, on this page, what you'll see is you have a policy that says that 20% of your
unassigned fund balance will be in an account. You actually have over twice that level, by virtue of
where you are and how you've run the Town, so congratulations.
Now, these are some of the reasons why it's important to have a strong unassigned fund balance, but
one thing I'd like to point out and that is for the citizens you all probably know this, all of those dollars
that are sitting there, they are earning interest. The interest that they're earning helps make less
pressure, if you would, on your General Fund. They actually help you keep the tax rate down by
having strong fund balance and earnings, so I want to make sure people realize that.
Lets talk about the challenges facing the Town in the next three to five years. Just again, for some of
you that are fairly new I do this every year. I present to you where you stand, I present to you working
with staff, what we think are some of the challenges and you can see them right here. Basically,
inflation is real and again, we think that you see that especially with certain expenditures as well as
with the capital projects that you are doing and are going to be doing.
In addition, we are concerned nationally and regionally about potential economic downturns.
Hopefully, our fears are going to be allayed but nevertheless, we are mentally preparing for that, as is
your staff. We want to make sure we don't get too excited about having a really good strong financial
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situation right now. Lastly, the last bullet point, we're going to have some additional debt service,
considerable, additional debt service, all of which I will tell you now, you're in a position to meet or in
good shape but nevertheless, it is real and were going to talk about that.
The next big topic which we're going to just touch on is Stormwater Capital funding. Some of you may
be aware, perhaps all of you, that that is an evolving need of many local governments throughout the
State, throughout the Commonwealth, throughout the Country. You've identified some $15 to $20
million of stormwater needs over the next several years, that's evolving. We're going to work with your
staff and come back to you Mayor and others sometime, hopefully by the end of this first quarter of
the new calendar year. It's anticipation of your next fiscal year budget to talk about some results and
strategies towards that. I just want to point that out. That is new. It's something we've not done before
and isn't going to be important. Lets talk about-- I mentioned earlier, credit ratings. I had the good
fortune of working with you, again, back as far as the early mid -90s. You back then were considered a
solid investment grade, you've now moved up five notches to AAA. You've done that with both
Standard & Poor's and Moody's, the two major rating agencies, and the third, Fitch as well.
Again, that puts you in rarefied air because again, you do these things you're supposed to do. You
have very solid policies. You meet or exceed them. There are a variety of drivers to the credit rating,
economic base. You have financial performance, debt factors, and other unassigned needed dollars
that you have to come up with, and finally, management and you are part of management. Part of the
reason you're AAA is because you not only have policies, but you let guys like me come in front of
you and talk about things and answer questions and think about how best to run the Government.
That is important and the rating folks take that into consideration.
A couple of pages here. What is, again, your strengths and things that could lead to a downgrade. I
will tell you everything that we're doing and planning for will not lead us to a downgrade, again, unless
the Town moves away from its historic policies of prudence. Again, benefits of being a AAA, multiple.
We have a bullet point in the middle. Your portfolio is about $90 plus million dollars because of being
rated where you are versus where you were some 25 years ago. You're borrowing at basically 1% to
2% points lower than you were then. You think about that, that's millions of extra dollars if we were not
well managed and it would really be impacting everything you want to do.
Let's talk about your debt profile. Right now. this is what your existing debt looks like. It does not
include the Airport Fund. That has a self-supporting nature to it. What you'll notice here is I've got a
little blue and it says 86%. What does that mean? That means that in 10 years from now, this Town
will have paid off 86% of its debt. Give you a sense of that for citizens. If you are fortunate to own a
home, have a mortgage, 10 years out on a 30 -year mortgage, you've typically paid off 25% of your
debt. You're at 86% paid out.
That puts you in an excellent position to take on the capital needs that you have identified and asked
us to look at with staff. This is your existing debt. The dark green is historically where you were over
the last five or so years. What you'll notice is we are now in better position in fiscal year 24 and soon
to be 25 going forward. We're able to layer in new debt and not effectively blow up our policies as I
will show you. One of those policies, debt as a percentage of the overall taxable assessed value. You
could see at one point we were above 0.5%, well below our policy, but going forward, again. we're
well under 0.5% as we look to move forward.
Same thing with debt service to expenditures. I like to call that your credit card. How many pennies on
the dollar of each budget goes to debt service? You have a policy that says it will not exceed 15%.
When I first started working with you, your goal was to be at 25% or less. That's how far you've come.
Right now, we are in 2024, a shade over 12%. Our level of debt service to where we were when I
started with you has been halved. We're in much better shape but we've got new debt to come.
The other thing we do is look at refunding opportunities. What I mean by that, I mean simply saving
money. Not extending any debt but just taking advantage of interest rates that come down. We've
done about $75 million of refinancing since 2015, you've saved about $10 million in that time. In
principle, we have a policy in place. On the following page, we are tracking three distinct debt service
profiles, which is almost half of your debt is possibly refundable over the next couple of years, if not
sooner. I won't belabor the observations other than to say that when we come back, we're going to
ask you in January to give us preapproval to get set up to meet when those debt service does meet
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the criteria to move forward so we can move very quickly. The one in particular is the one in the
middle, some $26 million of debt outstanding. Again, not talking about issuing any new additional
debt, but just simply changing out the interest rates to lower interest rates, lowering the debt service.
We are literally, basing one days interest rate away from that, about 11 basis points, even less today.
That is something that we can do as early as October, the way it works legally, and we'll keep you
abreast of that
Lets talk about capital planning. We've got a series of goals and objectives, one of which, as I said
earlier, makes sure we maintain the AAA ratings. Second, to minimize the pressure on the Town's
operating budget. What that really means is to not add as many dollars or add as little dollars as
necessary to the overall budget with debt service, putting it in smartly and meeting your policies. We
also want to make sure that we do this flexibly to take care of any unforeseen needs and problems in
the future.
What is our overview of the plan? The Town adopts annually a multiyear capital program. You do that,
not us. You do it for both the General Fund and the Utility Enterprise Fund. Again, the Utility
Enterprise Fund is funded by those who are the user fees. It's not part of the debt we just showed. It's
called self-supporting and your Utility Enterprise Fund, as my partner, Courtney Rogers, has been
here quite a bit, again, those are those rates that you look at to make sure that you're keeping that
going and that continues.
In the 24 to 30 fiscal years, you've got about $80 million identified for the General Fund and about $74
million for the Ulilily Enterprise Fund. Let's talk for a moment, especially about the General Fund.
There's basically three parts to that for the moment. You've got identified about $24 million for the
police station expansion. That's already underway. We're going to need to take care of that in the
short run. Second, you've identified about $7.5 million for the Town shop, but the timing is not exactly
certain. Then lastly, under your CIF, you've got about $10 million of other projects that are expected
to occur in the next two fiscal years.
The question is, how do we address all of that? Before I get to that, I want to put in and give you a
sense of where you stand right now with what we call your line of credit. What we did back in 2019
was to set up two lines of credit, one for the General Fund, one for the Utility Fund. That was set up to
basically allow you to do funding, but not to sit on dollars that basically would cost you a lot of money.
Over the time, we've drawn about $14 million out of the General Fund, we've drawn about $11 million,
$12 million out of the Utility Fund. By doing those, we are in a mode to basically minimize the
payments of interest.
You've paid about $840,000 of interest, but had you done permanent financings, back then instead of
the strategy that we recommended with staff, you would have paid $4.6 million of interest in this last
several years. This has been a very good strategy, and one we're going to recommend that we do
again in combination with taking and doing some permanency with the police station. This is our
recommended plan of finance. which again, with your blessing, will be back in January, but what we'd
like to do is to borrow permanently about $31 million dollars to take care of the police station and to
take out, term out, if you would, that line.
The reason we're going to do that is the line ends this June. We are basically getting ahead of that
and getting ourselves set up. That's going to be the first recommendation, and that was always part of
the plan going back five years. The second part is were going to recommend about a $17 and half
million line of credit, which would take care of that Town shop and the $10 million. The reason we
want to do that, again, is if things move slower, were not going to be paying any time prematurely.
Same concept as the one we are in now that's been so good for us. That's our thinking. We can get to
some more of the details. but we believe when you do all this on the next page, the red is the extra
revenues that were going to need over the next several years to take care of all of this strategy. You'll
notice here, it hits as high as a billion three, which is a little over the equivalent of one penny on your
real estate.
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That said, we really don't believe you're going to need to do that because you have built up a series of
reserves, and they are ample enough to take care of all that. We're not going to need or recommend
that we go do any tax increases, but rather to take advantage of the strategies that you've used over
the several years, use some of those reserves prudently and frankly, that $6.8 million is based upon
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borrowing rates that are considerably above where we are today. Again, we may not need any of this
when all is said and done, but we all want to take the worst case for your benefit to see that.
Okay, what does that do to cash flow? You could see there, we layer everything in, we go above that,
roughly $6.5 million, but we have those dollars to take care of it. Our policy, as you can see here, is
very much in line, no problems there. When we add all that debt, as well as when we add that debt
service to expenditures, we basically get back for one year where we were a couple of years ago, but
very quickly thereafter, we are in better shape than we were the last five years. That's even with
taking on this debt
Again, it's because you've done such a good job of setting up the debt structure, and we're going to
continue to do that because again, I may not be here in 5 or 10 years, but someone will be and we
want to make sure that you're in the right shape, and you look back and say, "We're glad we did these
things accordingly" Utility Enterprise Fund, 1'1 1 just touch on. What we did here is we are
recommending, as part of the overall plan, that we fund about 33 million through FY -27. The other
pieces are on the latter part of that, of the decade, and that we would use a combination again of a
line of credit and also some permanent financing to take out the existing line of credit, that $11.8
million.
Again, we're thinking about some combo. It worked for us last time, we see no reason why it won't
work for us again. A combination of taking out that $11.8 and also doing a line of credit so that again,
we're not paying any dollars prematurely unnecessarily. Once again, you could see what that does to
the overall debt portfolio of the utilities, but again, when my partner was here, we showed that under
certain rates and charges, you have the ability to do all that, stay self-supporting, and also meet all
your financial policies that are tied to the Enterprise Fund.
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Market update, I've been starting in this business again, the early 1980s, '81, '82, you can see their
interest rates permanently, 20 -year rates were about 14%. Today, they're sub 4%. While rates are
above that 2-2 5% of a couple of years ago, in the thick of the COVID environment, they are still,
relatively speaking, over a 40 -year period, very low and very positive and again, from our perspective,
we want to take advantage of that.
Next Steps. What are our next steps? This is really the last page or two. We're asking the Town
tonight to give staff and ourselves a green light to work with what we call your Bond Counsel and the
Town Attorney. Bond Counsel is your outside legal advisor that specializes in debt, that works with
Mr. Spera, and develops what we call requests for proposals for both the General Fund and the
Enterprise Fund for another set of lines of credit.
We're not able to simply just go to the bank and say, "We want to extend the line of credit." It doesn't
work that way. It's a whole new credit process with a whole new series of lenders out there. Our job is
to help you get the best of those. We're indifferent, whoever gives us the best all -in is who we
recommend, and well do that. In addition, we want to prepare for meetings with the credit rating
agencies. Our goal is to have them to come here at the end of February. I'm pleased to say we're
making great progress. When they come here, they could see firsthand how you've done and it's
exciting. The third thing we want to do is to let you know we're going to be back for the Stormwater.
Then finally, we want to make sure that you see that we're preparing for the General Fund New
Money, for both Utilities and the Enterprise Fund, and were going to get all of that setup, and talk to
you again in January. a little bit more in the time schedule. Wth that, I am done, Madam Mayor.
Mayor Burk: Very good.
David Rose: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rose. It was a lot of information. I'm sure that there's some
questions there. Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Zach Cummings: Yes. Two questions. I wanted just to make sure, on the
projected cashflow impact of the General Fund, with the showing the $6.8 million dollars additional
revenue needed. This is including all of our debt servicing and everything. It's the entire package.
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David Rose: Yes, sir.
Council Member Cummings: Okay, I just wanted to make sure. Then my only other question was
the $6 million, give or take, that we have additional funds at the end of the fiscal year. Where did that
come from, a rough breakdown of where that $6 million, give or take, came from.
David Rose: I'm going to ask Clark to give you that if you would. Clark, you want to tell him?
Clark Case: Sure. The leftover fund balance is primarily due to a number of revenues that came in
above budget, particularly sales taxes and meals taxes, and real estate taxes, and personal property
taxes also performed well last year, better than we had forecasted. Then our expenditures came in
below budget because of staff vacancies. We also had $2.9 million in ARPA funding that was
intended to help us get past the loss of revenue we had in the recreation department after COVID.
It didn't recover as fast as the rest of the revenues did, so we used that ARPA money to cover that
recreation lost revenue. but because we'd already cut enough expenditure budgets to cover that,
whether we got the ARPA revenue or not, that money contributed to our unassigned fund balance.
That money is free and clear for the Town Council to use to meet the current needs.
It is one-time money, so it's not really appropriate to use it for ongoing programs, but it does provide
us with some significant unassigned fund balance, which helps you fund your Capital Improvements
program, which is pretty ambitious.
Mayor Burk: Yes? Okay. Ms. Nacy. Okay, Mr. Bagdasarian.
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Council Member Ara Bagdasarian: Yes, just one question. Do we have a model to predact...predict
the projected debt? Obviously, this is paying down our existing debt
David Rose: That is your projected debt as well, Mr. Bagdasarian. For example, the existing debt is
that first column, next to it is the 2024 permanent financing that we're talking about. That was that $31
million I alluded to.
David Rose: Then you've got that third column there, that's the future debts that we're talking about. I
added in what would be the line of credit, and then I converted the line of credit to permanent
financing, expecting under the timeframe that y'all gave us.
That may be slower. Typically, it's been slower over the years. So in fairness, this is what we'll call the
worst case, meaning the most stress on you. Then your footnote, as I mention right below, it says,
planning interest rates line of credit, yada-yada, is 5.5% and 5% respectfully. Right now, just to give
you a sense of this, we went to the marketplace with the City of Alexandria about 10 days ago, they
are like you, AAA -rated, we did 20 year-- Actually, it's not true, 25 to 30 -year debt, but it was a little bit
shortened, so it was basically fixed rate up to 30 years, all -in cost of money was about 3.7%.
I'm using purposefully almost two whole percentage points higher. If that were to hold for you, I'm not
saying it will, and you don't get any re-fundings done, that red probably goes away, altogether. Again,
the mindset is let's think worst case. The mindset is, we've got a lot of reserves that we've put away
over a bunch of years, and that's going to take us and take care of us. That's our thinking.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Okay, Thank you.
David Rose: Thank you. It's good to see you in person, by the way. Last time I talked to you was by a
Zoom call downstairs, so I appreciate it.
Council Member Bagdasarian: [laughter]
Mayor Burk: He's not quite as scary when you see him in person.
David Rose: I didn't realize how handsome he is when you could see him in person, you know.
[laughter]
Page 5lDecember 11, 2023
Mayor Burk: Mr. Wilt.
Council Member Patrick Wilt: I just wanted to get some clear understanding of line of credits that
you're mentioning for the General Fund and the Utility Fund. These originated in 2019?
David Rose: Yes, sir.
Council Member Wilt: Is that right?
David Rose: Yes.
Council Member Wilt: At the time, you said the difference in the permanent financing, what would
the permanent financing rates been at that time?
David Rose: I'm sorry?
Council Member Wilt: The permanent financing rates back in 2019 that were used as a comparison
basis.
David Rose: Oh, okay. Let's go back. 1'11 get you the answer right here.
Council Member Wilt: We're making the savings, this $4.5 million savings.
David Rose: If you look at-- In 2019, basically, they were in around the 4% where they are today but
what was interesting, Mr. Wilt, was the reinvestment rate. In other words, if we borrowed those
monies back then and let's say had a permanent cost of money at 4%, what we were able to earn
while the money was sitting there was less than 1 %. Today, it's very different. Today, short-term rates
are higher or equal to long-term rates. If we were to go forward and to borrow, like we talk about some
permanent dollars today, when that money is sitting there, it's actually earning an interest rate about
what the cost of the money is. Its much more efficient.
Council Member Wilt: I was assuming back in 2019 and over this period, were having the savings
because of the nature of the yield curve. What we're borrowing over the last five years at the line of
credit rates?
David Rose: Now, so the line of credit rates basically was it 2.6%?
Clark Case: 2.6%.
David Rose: 2.6% has been locked in.
Council Member Wilt: On average for that, okay.
David Rose: No, not on average. Actually, what was great about it was wonderful, we set it up in
negotiation. I don't think we'll get that going forward but they gave us a fixed rate of maybe 2.64, but
just go with me. It's around 2, 2.5. They gave us that rate irrespective of what rates did over the next
five years, starting 2019. On top of that, we didn't have to borrow any of it or all of it. There was no
penalty. They were guaranteeing us that even if rates had gone up, whenever we drew down those
dollars, we were over 2.6%.
Council Member Wilt: The nature of the $4.5 million savings, some of that is just a basis point
difference in the yield curve, borrowing cost, and some of it is not drawing it out of line of credit,
paying interest on it at all.
David Rose: Yes. Basically. what it is was the idea that we just compared drawing down the line of
credit and not having to sit with those other dollars idly. That's right.
Council Member Wilt: Okay, there are availability fees on the line of credit?
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David Rose: No.
Council Member Wilt: Nothing?
David Rose: No. That's what's great about it, no. Don't expect that going forward. No, there was
none. I know.
Council Member Wilt: That's a surprise.
David Rose: Let me say, and this s part of it, the banks in those days were very aggressive. You
have a great credit, in fairness, they really expected that you were going to draw down all of those
monies or most of those monies, fairly quickly, and you didn't but there was no penalty to us. There's
no penalty.
Council Member Wilt: Going forward, there's a break-even point at which the interest rate forecast, if
the short-term rates and a line of credit are going to increase, you know there's a break-even paint
which is beneficial to lock in at some point at the beginning of the financing.
David Rose: Yes.
Council Member Wilt: You do those sensitivity analysis?
David Rose: Yes. We actually did that. Interesting you say that. About two years ago, we made a
recommendation to convert and to do some permanent financing, for some of that so we actually
locked in at 1.57% for 20 years, to your point. It's actually the lowest rate that I've ever locked in with
the local government, and I've been doing it 42 years. We did exactly what you're talking about And
we will, that's why I'm saying if we can get from you all the ability to be flexible, especially with the
refinancings as welt
Council Member Wilt: Okay.
David Rose: We're going to ask for that in January so that we can do these kinds of things quickly.
That's the thinking at the right time.
Council Member Wilt: All right, good. That's sensible. Thank you.
David Rose: Thank you. Appreciate it
Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor.
Vice Mayor Neil Steinberg: Actually, those were a lot of the questions I was going to ask. First off, I
was wondering, yada, yada, yada, that's a financial term of some kind?
David Rose: I occasionally do those things. It was that line of the sentence there, Vice Mayor, about
the 5% and the 5.5%. When I said the interest cost that we assume.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: No, that's fine.
David Rose: That's what I did.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: When it comes to the expansion for the police station then, you were talking
about permanent dollars for that How is that accounted for, prior to that? How is that built into the
CIP?
David Rose: So, that was built in and is built into the CIP. Again, it's roughly whatever 24 or so million
dollars that we're planning on borrowing. That was just something that you, as a Council, had
approved and so it was incumbent on us. Once that project got started, we know it's real and we
know, again, with the bids and all that we've got to come up with those dollars. So, it makes the most
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sense given where the market is right now to permanently finance that. So, that's what we're
recommending.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Okay. Thanks.
David Rose: And that's in. that's in Mr. Cumming's question, that's in all the cash flows. When you
see those various pieces, that's been layered in at the 5, 5.5%, which I'm thinking and hoping that we
come back to you and say we're a lot closer in the fours, if not lower. but again --
Mayor Burk: Mr. Rose. we are, in the past when we looked at our water rates, we set a five-year goal
to maintain those rates. Does that play into the AA ratings at all?
David Rose: Yes, it does.
Mayor Burk: I mean AAA, excuse me.
David Rose: AAA. It does, yes, ma'am. I knew you're getting towards that. It does because the rating
agencies get comfort in knowing that you're thinking over several years. They know you can always
change that and that's important for the citizens to know there's things that happen, circumstances,
what have you, but that's one of the great strengths of Leesburg is that you've always been very good
about planning, and that's like what we're doing tonight. I'm talking about five-year lines of credit, five-
year implementation. You've been doing that and that's what were talking about.
Mayor Burk: It was apparent as you were talking that the five-year was a real goal that we have
worked on for many years to get to that point, so it's paid off and I am proud of that.
David Rose: It has paid off.
Mayor Burk: You did talk about that we had, we have a policy of a 20% reserve and that we had over
that, actually had over that. Is that a good thing to have or is that something that should be used
another way?
David Rose: I would argue it's an excellent thing to have, in part because again, when you look at
what might happen in the future, the fact that we have more dollars than necessary. You may recall
just a couple of years ago, we used and drew down some of that in the 2022 year to use strategically
for other things. So, by having these extra dollars, it gives us more flexibility. We earn interest on that,
that helps keep the General Fund debt service, excuse me debt service, not only debt service, but
keeps the General Fund tax rates down, less pressure. It keeps that AAA rating up or maintains that.
On top of that, like I said, it allows you what you did back-- I think it was 2022, to use those monies
and other reasons as one-time purposes. I feel like this is the best of all worlds and you're in that
made. You're usually, we're usually trying to get local governments to meet a policy. You're over that
policy and that really is a strength for you.
Mayor Burk: Interesting. Okay. Thank you. I'm not going to be able to find it now, but there was a
page that said how much money we saved. Was it $3 million?
David Rose: Yes. Again. were just talking about that. Let me get to that page. Right there. Yes, that's
right.
Mayor Burk: $3.8 million. we saved because of the policies that we had in place and how we
followed what we had actually agreed to do.
David Rose: Yes. that's correct.
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Mayor Burk: [laughter] That's right. Which is why again, I think Mr. Wilt was happily surprised
because there was no carrying costs. There was no, what do you want to call, penalties for not using
those dollars, which again, going forward, I want to make it clear, I think were going to get a good
solid line of credit results, but I don't think were going to get the type of results we got five years ago.
The markets have changed. I want to make that clear. I think well see what we get. It will ultimately
be your decision.
Mayor Burk: Then these reserves funds, it's very important that they are just one-time uses, that it's
not something that's a long term, it's not something that's going to continue on. It's something that
were going to pay for and it'll be done.
David Rose: Yes, absolutely.
Mayor Burk: Because you don't know if you're going to have it the next year.
David Rose: Correct. That's right.
Mayor Burk: Okay well thank you, Mr. Rose. I appreciate all the information as always. Very concise
and precise and have appreciated your guidance in the past, and I look forward to continuing to work
with you for the foreseeable future.
David Rose: I appreciate it. If I'm allowed back in January, I will meet your 10 -minute rule. I promise
you [crosstalk]
Mayor Burk: You did very well tonight.
David Rose: Thank you. All right.
Mayor Burk Thank you.
David Rose: Happy holidays.
Mayor Burk: Happy holidays to you, too. Alright, our next item is the establishment of a Business
Assistance Team,
Evan Harlow: Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council. Happy holidays to everyone. I'm Evan
Harlow, the Customer Service Center Manager with the Department of Community Development. I'm
here with James David, the Community Development Director, as well as Russell Seymour, Economic
Development Director, and a couple of his staff.
As you may remember back in January of this year at your planning retreat, you asked staff to
evaluate whether to establish a Business Assistance Team and so that's what this item is before you
tonight.
One of the Town's goals and the Council's goals is to establish a vibrant and diverse business
community. Our Economic Development Department, one of their core functions is to attract and
retain business. They do this through program implementation, educating business owners,
partnering with the community, partnering with agencies like the Small Business Development Center.
They also collaborate with the internal agencies, our department, public works, utilities. They partner
to create an efficient process. Our Community Development Department, one of our core functions is
customer service and providing efficient processes so that applicants can get through the land
development and permitting process.
What were looking at tonight is creating a Business Assistance Team that enhances or builds upon
our core services, economic development, and community development services of expanding
businesses, providing efficient processes. We're looking at a multi -departmental team with five
primary agencies, Department of Economic Development, Community Development, Public Works
and Capital Projects, Utilities, and the Finance Department, so five primary agencies. We're looking at
having a Team Leader or leaders that would help facilitate internal meetings with the Business
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Assistance Team agencies, as well as facilitate meetings with the business owners and business
applicants, as well as help create process improvements, implementation of efficient processes.
We're also looking on an as -needed basis to partner with County departments. Health Department
typically is involved with our restaurant business owners, as well as the Fire Marshal's office and our
Code Enforcement Division. As the Council knows, the County enforces our building codes, so
partnering with them is important as part of the business establishment process.
On your slide here, there's several team functions that were looking at having as part of the team.
One of the main ones is meeting with business applicants. The idea is to have all of the agencies that
are part of the team to have a one setting where a business applicant can come in and we can talk
about the process. What are the fees? What's the timing? That approvals do I have to go through to
get my occupancy permit to establish my business? Really, it's a one -stop meeting where we can
provide guidance to the business owners.
I think this is really important that before a business owner signs a lease that they come in and they
can understand what the process is, what the fees are, can I even do it at the location? That's one of
the ideas that the team would function.
A couple of others are evaluating how we coordinate internally, between our departments. I think
that's really important to take a look at that and see how we operate internally. Also, to look at our
customer service practices. Are there process improvements that we can implement amongst our
departments? One of the other ideas is producing start-up guides, a how-to guide from start to finish,
how do I get into the Town, what are my permitting requirements, how do I get my Occupancy Permit,
so kind of a how-to guide.
Also, looking at establishing a presence on the Town of Leesburg's Website. The idea is Economic
Development already has a choose Leesburg site. We'd play off that. The Website would have our
point of contacts, what our mission is, links to set up meetings with the Business Assistance Team.
We also look at having links on the membership department's Websites as well.
Also, as part of your item, Loudoun County has a Business Assistance Team, and they created a
brochure that they hand out at their land development counter or their planning and zoning counter.
We'd also look at creating brochures that we could put at our front -facing counters so that applicants,
business owners, residents can grab that information.
Finally, wed serve as a point of contact through the land development process. If there's any hiccups
or issues throughout the process, they have a point of contact in any one of these five departments
that they could go to for assistance.
What are the benefits? Certainly, educated business owners. The teams available, as I mentioned, to
sit with owners and go through the process, so educate a business owner. Again, before signing a
lease, get that information. The worst thing to have is you sign a lease and realize you can't do it at
that location. Definitely, educate a business owner. Increased departmental collaboration between the
five departments as well as working with the County, you have increased collaboration. Finally,
enhanced customer service and increased process efficiencies. We see that this would provide just
an enhanced customer service experience for our business owners.
Economic Development recently had their strategic plan adopted in October, and one of the strategies
is in Ombudsman role, the establishment of an Ombudsman position to be somewhat of a point of
contact for priority projects. We would see this position rolling into the Business Assistance Team and
helping out with those priority projects. We also see that from a community development department
standpoint, that the team will help create efficiencies in our process and enhance our customer
service functions.
Fiscal impact standpoint. We would expect that wed use existing staffing resources from each of
these departments, so no additional full-time employees would be required or requested. Wth the
idea of having meetings with the business applicants, we see that the educated applicant, hopefully,
would have all the information upfront where if they could submit a complete application and get
through the process a little quicker, which has a really positive fiscal impact for the Town.
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The quicker they can get up and running, the quicker they're paying taxes, it's good fiscally for the
Town. We see a real benefit there. Staff recommendation, all of the participating departments support
the establishment of the team. I had the opportunity to speak with all the Directors. Each one of the
directors is supportive of the team creation. At this point really, I was providing the Council
information, and its really open it up for questions. Happy to answer anything that you may have.
Mayor Burk: Thank you very much. Mr. Bagdasarian, do you have any questions on this?
Council Member Bagdasarian: I do, thank you. How do, I know you mentioned the Website and
brochures only, but how does a Business access the Team, or what's the user experience, if you will?
If you're starting a business, what does that look like?
Evan Harlow: Sure. I would expect that the Team Leader, there would be a direct line to that Team
Leader email, phone number, link to the Website where an applicant can go and find a lot of the
information about the permitting process, the team members who they could contact, if they would like
to meet-- I think that's the really important thing, is having the ability to meet with staff and having all
of those departments and staff members in one setting because that way you can get all the
information at one time rather than having to go to various different departments to get that
information. I think the experience is, you come in, you work with the Team Leader. The Team Leader
coordinates meetings, is available even after the meetings, after you submit your permit application,
your land development application as that liaison or point of contact to help you through the process.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Is the Team Leader the central point of contact for the Business
that's in touch with the Town?
Evan Harlow: 1 would say yes.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Okay, alright. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: Mr. Cummings? Mr. Wilt?
Council Member Wilt: Thanks. Thanks, Evan. Looks interesting. On the first one on the staffing, you
said no initial FTEs requested. What would the anticipation of the existing staff-- how many FTEs of
existing staff do we think would be consumed?
Evan Harlow: Really, wed be looking at one subject matter expert from each department to
participate as part of the team. We really would want to be cognizant of staff members' time. If a
meeting is requested, I certainly would honor that meeting, but we would certainly respect time, but it
would be one staff member from each department that we would expect to be core members of the
team.
Council Member Wilt In how many departments?
Evan Harlow: Five primary departments.
Council Member Wilt: Five departments. We have some portion of five people that have existing
availability right now?
Evan Harlow: Yes.
Council Member Wilt: How much is this a 10th of their time, half their time? What do we think?
Evan Harlow: It's a good question. Once we launch the team, well see how popular we become, and
hopefully, we are. It's hard to answer that question at this point, Mr. Wilt, but certainly, we would be
respective of the folk's time. We see it as an opportunity to really help the business community.
Council Member Wilt: At the outset, we're setting expectations that folks have to have, what, a
quarter of their time there, and we have some sort of expectation, right?
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Evan Harlow: Sure. I think initially, the Business Assistant's Team Leader, it would be a lot of their
time creating the team, getting the website up and running. Then it would be expected that the team
members from those perspective departments. They would really be pulled in more when there's
those meeting settings, when there's some of those process improvements, things like that. I would
see a lot of it with the Business Assistance Team Leader, a lot of upfront time [crosstalk]
Kaj Dentler: Mr. Wilt, Madam Mayor, if it's okay if I jump in. We're in essence already doing these
things. It's just informal. A lot of the effort is to formalize the whole program. Staff availability is already
being-- were making themselves available to help the businesses as appropriate.
Council Member Wilt: Got it. This is existing staff time. Its already devoted to these tasks that we're
talking about.
Evan Harlow: That's a very good point. Its just pulling everybody together in one setting.
Council Member Wilt: Then thinking about attracting businesses and making things smoother, one
of the team functions, the startup guides, that sounds really useful to me. I think it is rather arcane and
confusing to navigate the process today. That would actually be a nice-- even if it's a checklist format,
that would be a great resource. Once that's produced, that is now an existing asset. Then on an
ongoing basis, what's the anticipation of activity? Is it cultivating businesses, or is it process
efficiency? Execution? What do we think is the activities undertaking?
Evan Harlow: I think it's a combination of all of those that you mentioned.
Council Member Wilt: Just in the background, which businesses gave input into what they think the
needs are and to help develop this idea?
Evan Harlow: No businesses at this point have provided input.
Council Member Wilt: Pardon me.
Evan Harlow: No businesses at this point have provided input.
Council Member Wilt: Okay, then the idea of process efficiencies, do we have maybe top targets
where we think there might be issues that could be addressed that we want the team to take a look
at?
Evan Harlow: I think some things are coordination between the offices. The business licensing, the
zoning permit process. Just looking at how we interact, but I think it would take some time to get the
team together and evaluate how we're operating, and what some of those process efficiencies could
be.
Council Member Wilt: The team will try to develop that agenda.
Evan Harlow: Exactly.
Council Member Wilt: I assume it's usually in process improvements when you target the scope of
something, then you want to target a certain metric for improvement that is applicable to whatever the
scenario is. Like if its licensing, or zoning, is it speed? Is it workload?
Evan Harlow: You mentioned speed, I think speed is something that's important to a business owner.
I think looking at our processes, looking how we coordinate, I think that's where we'll try to see if we
could shave off sometime. Certainly, that's important for a business owner.
Council Member Wilt: Just highlighting, to improve something, you have to have a metric, something
to improve that you can focus on and then determine whether you actually succeeded at it. Once the
agenda's identified with a group of target ideas, then what is to be improved along those lines needs
to be defined. The other element I was interested in seeing is in terms of the goal, it was to attract and
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retain business. Most of the conversation that struck me was about attracting and facilitating new
businesses. What are the elements that are targeted at retaining existing businesses?
Evan Harlow: I think that would be part of the approach and I think part of --
Russell Seymour: Sneaking behind you here.
Evan Harlow: Yes, sure.
Russell Seymour: That's a very good question, Mr. Wilt One of the things that we'd want to do, it
goes two ways. You need to work with the new ones coming in. You need to make sure if there's an
existing business that needs to expand, that needs to have some change that they want to make in
the way they operate their current business. Any of that, they will be eligible for the same program. It's
not just to put out there for new businesses coming in, it's to work with the ones that are already here.
Council Member Wilt: Okay.
Russell Seymour: Both of those will be looked at identically. You've heard me say this a number of
times. We get an existing business to expand, were ahead of the game, and that's exactly what we're
hoping to do with this.
Council Member Wilt: I guess the specifics would need to be identified, what levers to pull, because
helping someone with, I guess you called it a brochure or something, knowing, well, you need zoning
approval, you need a Certificate of Occupancy, you need building and coordinate with the County.
This is your checklist to get underway. Once you've been operating for a few years, those aren't your
concerns anymore. What are the concerns? There's a whole different menu of things, and so that
would have to be identified.
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Russell Seymour: I think the piece of it is you tailor it to your prospect. There won't be one shoe fits
everybody. You work with that client, as you were saying, bringing it in and working with them
individually, find out what their needs are.
Council Member Wilt: Then when you're creating those agendas, that might be valuable to get some
actual business input at that point. All right, great. Thanks. guys.
Mayor Burk: Ms. Nacy.
Council Member Nacy: I don't have anything.
Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Well, thanks for the presentation. You mentioned here in the slide, team
functions, that you're establishing a Web Page, so I know-- In fact, our Tech Commission is giving us
their annual report tomorrow. I know they and the tech department are hard at work in redesigning the
Website, creating digital Town Hall and all that. Are they aware-- are those departments aware of this
particular idea so that they might start building this and incorporate it into the overall design?
Evan Harlow: I would say not yet, because you all are really seeing this for the first time, No, but we
will look at that. We had the idea of using the Choose Leesburg site, because a lot of folks funnel
through Economic Development first when they're looking to establish or expand here in the Town.
We thought that that was a good starting point, but also providing links to the other development
agencies as well, community development, so that regardless of where you go on the Town site, you
see that link to be able to get to [crosstalk].
Vice Mayor Steinberg: I appreciate that. I realize this is new, but it'd be nice if we could keep
everything in the same stream so we don't have to drag it back and figure out how we're going to.
Now, it seems to me, I saw on the staff report the phrase, something about-- you don't know what you
don't know. That is true and that may be as much true for certain existing businesses as new
businesses. I think you and I are both aware of a situation where that's absolutely the case. You don't
know what you've done and what you may be uncovering in addressing a different issue. Is there
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some way that this can help with that? How does an existing business know that they even need to
ask the question? That may be the most difficult part.
Evan Harlow: Yes, a good example is the Zoning Ordinance rewrite. That's something where, you're
an existing business, and you may have come under certain rules at one time, but then, there's going
to be new rules. If you're looking to expand, there's new rules that are in place. I think there's some
outreach that could be part of the Business Assistance Teams' functions. Certainly, Russell's team
provides that with their services as well. Then through community development, we also provide
those services. I think it's a combination.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: What timeframe are we thinking before we at least have a basic program up
and running that's useful?
Evan Harlow: Once we get a Resolution established, if that's what the Council would like, we kick it
into high gear. I think the first thing we would start with is really defining who the staff members are
that are going to represent the team. Then we look at creating a Charter or framework of how we're
going to operate, really choose some of the high priorities that we really want to tackle, and then
create that Website presence. You're looking likely into the summertime where we're really starting to
see, but I don't want to commit at this point. I think really establishing the Business Assistance Team
Leader, and really setting those priorities and getting that presence out there.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: That's good. I think it's a great idea. It's regrettable that we were forced to
delay the whole project because of COVID and a few other items. I'm glad to see it's back on track
now. Thanks.
Mayor Burk: There's a couple of questions I'm going to ask just for clarification purposes. Businesses
have to go to the Town to get some permits, into the County to get other permits. A lot of times,
there's all the disconnect there. That Ombudsman person woutd help with that?
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Evan Harlow: Yes.
Mayor Burk: You anticipate that that would be something they would work with, too, because that's
one of the more common complaints I hear.
Evan Harlow: That's one of the challenges.
Mayor Burk: County said this, Town said this, what am I supposed to do kind of thing. This is not, or
maybe it is, is this a-- We talked about businesses that are already in place and retaining businesses.
This is not going to be a business consultant type of thing, is it, or will it be? Some business is
struggling because they don't have a real strong marketing program. Are we then going to step in and
help them with their marketing program?
Evan Harlow: The answer would be no. We're really consulting on the Town's processes to get you
through the process, so no, we would not. This team would not focus on marketing on behalf of a
business
Mayor Burk: It's really the process of the Town, so that whatever the Town is requiring permit wise
and along those lines, that's what this emphasis is going to be on. I want to make that clear.
Evan Harlow: Absolutely. If you saw in the items, too, we are a partner with the County on their
Business Assistance Team, so it's kind of a reciprocal idea that we're going to have is working as well
with the County. As you mentioned, Mayor Burk, having the dual jurisdictional approval process can
be confusing for, especially our new business owners. A lot of folks don't realize that, oh, I have to go
to the County to get building permits and the occupancy, and so that can be confusing.
Mayor Burk: 1 would think so.
Evan Harlow: It's really about the education.
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Mayor Burk: Is this going to make that the developers and the businesses won't need their attorneys
anymore?
[laughter]
Evan Harlow: No, I would expect that we would meet with the developers and the attorneys to help
them with the process.
Mayor Burk: Isn't that their role also? I think it's very important to state what was already stated by
the Town administrator here, the Manager, that this is what— We basically do this now very informally.
Businesses call and they're like, '1 don't know what to do next" 1'11 go to James and say, "Could you
help this guy with whatever he's got to do or this lady?" This is really what you're doing already, were
just formalizing it and making it something that is there, a service that's available to help.
Evan Harlow: Absolutely. You'll have a true point of contact with that Business Assistance Team
Leader. Rather than you call James and then he directs it to somebody else, and then you have to
direct it to somebody else, another department, that Business Assistance Team Leader could get that
first call and then do all the coordination, whether it's a meeting, getting the answers from the other
departments. They're really kind of that person and the conduit to that business applicant.
Mayor Burk: Well, it sounds very interesting. Do you need from us an indication that we would like to
have this go forward? Is that where you would appreciate tonight?
Kaj Dentler: I think it's really Council's comfort zone. If you want to approve at your next meeting in
January a concept, you could do that. There's a lot of details that we still have to work out. You
certainly, all of you, have given input to us and we don't have all that worked out. This is taken off
from what you presented at the retreat 1 think it's really what your comfort zone is because this was
your idea as part of the retreat Give me the guidance and well follow there.
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Mayor Burk: Mr. Bagdasarian?
Council Member Bagdasarian: One more question.
Mayor Burk: One more question?
Council Member Bagdasarian: I have one more question. Always one last question. Do we have an
idea of the volume of inquiries from businesses, either new or existing businesses, that seek the
assistance of the Town for navigating the process currently?
Evan Harlow: Do you all track?
Russell Seymour: Mr. Bagdasarian, we don't track numbers, but I can tell you that that is probably
one of the biggest requests that we get. You mentioned earlier, we were talking a little bit about
people coming in and asking us how to get through the process. As the Mayor mentioned, you've got
sometimes dual processes with us in the County. I would say that that's the role that Melanie has
probably been doing, or myself has been doing probably more than any of that. It is a high number.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Okay, thanks.
Mayor Burk: Do we want to establish a Business Assistance Team, have them come back in January
with the outline of the concept of what they hope to do, and start the process? I'd say that was
everybody? Mr. Wilt? Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate the information. Our last item on
the agenda tonight is the Leesburg Main Street program.
Allison Wood: Good evening, Mayor, Council. My name is Allison Wood. I'm a Small Business
Development and Tourism Specialist for Economic Development. I am here to give an update on our
Main Street organization. I was here just about a year ago to give an update on the outreach that we
did, and we had just established a steering committee. It's really exciting to show all of the progress
that the group has made. I know we've given a few updates over the course of this year, so you know
that the organization is now known as the Leesburg Movement.
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Since our last update, they have changed the colors of the logo that was based on feedback provided
by Council. They have gone with friendlier colors that are a little less corporate so that they're
friendlier to the community. You'll also see a huge uptick in their social media. They have just over a
thousand followers now and have recently joined Facebook so that they can start promoting their own
events.
In August, we reported that we had just received a plus -up for the FY23 Community Vitality Grant.
That first bullet point that you'll see right there, the Board of Directors Handbook, et cetera, that was
all stuff that was done with the original grant amount that was working with our consultant, Jennifer
Goldman. With the plus -up, we did end up using our consultant for a few other more hands-on items.
She worked directly with the steering committee to file their corporation, to file their 501(c)(3)
paperwork. Really, she met with them so they could really help organizing and get to know what kind
of projects they wanted to work on. She also helped them establish their bank account, P.O. Box,
choose insurance, all that kind of good stuff.
The remaining funds of the plus -up and the majority of the funds are actually going directly to the
Leesburg Movement. Because that grant was written truly for the development of the organization,
they were limited to spending it on further development as well as branding. You'll see a lot of it is
fees and insurance. They have gotten their Main Street America membership. Then, of course,
they've added some branding items. Now that they're doing their own events, it's really great that they
can have a canopy tent, they can have T-shirts to pass out, stickers, all that kind of stuff, really just to
infiltrate the community so people really know who they are.
Let's see. The grant does need to be spent by the end of this calendar year, so they are working on
getting all of those purchases in. For the FY24 Community Vitality Grants, Economic Development
was awarded $15,000 for a wayfinding project. I don't believe we have found out that we had received
the grant the last time we were here. We have received those funds, and we are working with Public
Works to get this project moving forward. We will be working with our on -call contractor. We're
expected to have a contract in hand by mid -January.
Then just to reiterate, because we did go over a lot of the feedback that we had gotten through our
outreach efforts last year, this project is really truly in alignment with that feedback that we received,
particularly to help address the fact that we need more foot traffic on those arteries that are outside of
the Main King Street block. The Leesburg Movement was very supportive of us applying for this grant
for wayfmding.
The committees are now working soi t had started, obviously, as a steering committee, then as a
board once they filed as a corporation. Now really, that work needs to go on within the four
committees that exist. Some of the recent projects that they've completed include a holiday retail
workshop that was in collaboration with SBDC. That was really just to help our retailers prepare for
the holiday season, and then, of course, close out in January. They've established a pop-up music
event called the Listening Room Series. They had their first one in November. Then, I believe the next
one will be in January.
Then, I know a few of you were able to make it to the Small Business Saturday event. That was our
Christmas market at the Courthouse. They had, I believe it was about 12 different vendors that were
there. They estimated that there were 300 attendees, which was pretty great. Got more people
Downtown for a Small Business Saturday walking the streets. They also put together a Downtown
passport. That had 15 businesses listed with their Small Business Saturday, and Black Friday, Cyber
Monday promotions. They passed them out in several Coffee Shops, leading up to Thanksgiving, in
that weekend. They also passed them out within those businesses and at the market.
Oh, additional projects that they've done, they have actually established a retail advisory group. That
consists of just our retail businesses that maybe don't have the time to contribute within a committee,
but they'd like to give their feedback. They're also working on establishing that restaurant version of
that. There will be a restaurant advisory group. Then they are also looking to create a rack card in the
next month or so that can be passed out to the B&Bs that are within the Loudoun B&B Guild so that
we can start directing people that are staying at those B&Bs to Downtown.
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Next steps for the Board, they really truly need to continue to fill those committees with volunteers.
Like I said, that's really where the work happens. They're working on that. They need to keep going
forward with their project, showing success. Some of the other projects that they are working an, a
restaurant week for early 2024, potentially some Valentine's Day promotions, and they will be building
a Website. They will also be working on writing an MOU with the Town. Our department actually has a
meeting with the officers later this week just to start those conversations, see what kind of things that
they're thinking of. That is a very typical step for a Main Street organization to actually formalize an
MOU with theft Town.
Then in April, they will need to apply for the FY25 Community Vitality Grant That will be a really big
step for them. They'll need to decide what they actually want to apply for and go through all that
process. Then, I know it seemed like it was far away last year when we presented, but they can apply
for Tier 2 status in November of 2024 They will, of course, start working on that as welt Thank you.
Do you guys have any questions?
Mayor Burk: Does anyone have any questions? Yes, Mr. Cummings?
Council Member Cummings: Just a quick question on the wayfinding. You mentioned you're going
to have the consultant on or the work-- folks doing the work in January. Do we have a sense of when
the signage will be up?
Allison Wood: The assessment-- it's actually an assessment and study. It's not for the
implementation of the signs just yet. The grant is just for the study. That grant will have to be
completed by October of '24.
Council Member Cummings: Okay. Thanks.
Mayor Burk: Anyone &se? Thank you. We appreciate the information. We are very, very anxious to
get this obviously started. I do have to say it's quite a coup to be able to get on the Courthouse lawn,
but then to have vendors and tents and people. That doesn't happen very often.
Allison Wood: Our Parks and Rec Department was very helpful in assisting them with that.
Mayor Burk: Wow, that's really something, because it's always such a dead zone, and so to have
things going on there is a fabulous idea. I didn't participate, didn't know about the listening series, but
I hope that's something that will be advertised well enough that we can know about it and attend. So
that's wonderful.
Allison Wood: Mayor, I know for our economic development plan, we have also discussed using the
Courthouse lawn as that Town square, and we have advised them of that as well, and so they do plan
on continuing to attempt to have more events there.
Mayor Burk: Great. Wonderful. Well, thank you very much. Mr. Bagdasarian.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Oh, no, not again.
Mayor Burk: I said, was there any questions, and there was no lights on.
Council Member Bagdasarian: I was a little slow. I got the trigger there, but yes, thank you very
much.
Mayor Burk: Yes, Mr. Bagdasarian.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Yes, one question. What role does the Leesburg Movement have in
projects like the wayfinding sign project?
Allison Wood: They will just be advisory. We've included the Chair and the Vice Chair to be advisory
within the design. We have discussed the possibility of changing the design just to modernize it. It
wouldn't change any of the Town branding or colors or anything like that, but there's the possibility
Page 17[December 11, 2023
that we can maybe update fonts or things like that. They would be included in that. We have also
discussed including them just kind of in those initial projects, startup meetings, but mainly it will be
Economic Development that's representing them within that project.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Thank you.
Mayor Burk: I didn't put your light on right away.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Yes. Actually, I had a similar question. How's the small music pop thing being
advertised because I wasn't aware of it?
Allison Wood: Social Media.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Social Media. Okay, got you. To what extent at this stage are the businesses
themselves becoming more involved in the overall program?
Allison Wood: I would say ifs been like a snowball situation. I think especially as they're doing more
and more events, businesses that maybe still haven't heard of Main Street and the Leesburg
Movement, are like, "What, who's doing that?" Then there's also the benefit of the fact that they're
doing these events. they are reaching out to businesses to see who wants to participate. I do feel like
there's been a lot of businesses that have slowly started coming into the fold, but of course, there's
still some that it'll take time.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Refresh my memory because I thought there was a slight reshuffling of the
Tiers. What comes with the Tier 2?
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Allison Wood: Tier 2 is the mobilizing Main Street Tier. The shuffling had been that there were four
tiers and we had been two, but then they got rid of the first one basically. We really went back down to
one. Tier 3, advancing Main Street is, of course, the goal. Tier 2, the way that Virginia Main Street has
organized it now, you go into a cohort program. It's a two-year cohort. They would apply in November
of 24. They would find out, I believe, in December of '24. Then the cohort starts in January of '25 and
goes through those two years. They have to complete that. There's webinars and huddles and all
sorts of things, monthly events that they do.
It's really so that Virginia Main Street can make sure that they are fully prepared for what it takes to
be, not to become, but to actually be an advancing Main Street organization, because they did find
that once people would get to that final tier, they really weren't prepared for everything that it entailed.
That's really that preparation step. In Tier 1, we really need to show that we're serious and that were
making moves because it is a competitive application process to get into Tier 2.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: All right. Thank you.
Mayor Burk: It would be too early to budget to have a Director for Main Street at this point.
Allison Wood: Not necessarily, no. Actually, oftentimes there is already some type of paid staff
member for the organization before tier 2. Like I said, it's competitive, and so it just shows more
seriousness if that is the route that we decide to go.
Mayor Burk: Thank you. Appreciate that. He's telling you to say something else.
Allison Wood: I'm sorry. It is actually already requested for fiscal, for part -lime for fiscal' 25.
Mayor Burk: Okay, great. All right, thank you very much. We look forward to getting this moving
forward, and you're doing great stuff already.
Page 18IDecember 11, 2023
Allison Wood: Thank you.
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Mayor Burk: Do we have any future Council Members or agenda topics or disclosures at this point?
The only thing I would like to identify is I would like to recognize our Parks and Rec staff for an
amazing job they did between one weekend was the tree lighting and the next weekend was the
parade. It was just phenomenal, what they did and how they organized it and got it all together. Both
events were huge for the Town and very well organized and very efficiently done. I want to thank
them and appreciate their efforts in regard to that. Yes, Vice Mayor.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Nothing for future comments. Just wanted everyone to wish the mayor happy
anniversary. Apparently, she's been married for a couple years now. [laughter]
Mayor Burk: That's true. I'm here with you all. [laughter] Yes.
Council Member Bagdasarian: Oh, it's tonight.
Council Member Cummings: We should take another hour or two.
Vice Mayor Steinberg: You know we're going to.
Mayor Burk: All right. Then are we going to stay in here for the closed session? Then at this point,
we are going to go into a closed session. I will move pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711(A)(8)
and 2.2-3711(A)(3) of the Code of Virginia that the Leesburg Town Council convene in a closed
meeting for the purpose of consultation with legal counsel and briefing by the staff members regarding
specific legal matters related to the annexation of the JLMA. Whereas such consultation, an open
session would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the Town. Is there a second?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Second.
Mayor Burk: All in favor?
Members: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Opposed? So that passes 6-0-1.
Council convened in a closed session at 8:14 p.m.
Council took a recess from 8:14 p.m. — 8:20 p.m.
Council convened in an open session at 9:00 p.m.
Mayor Burk: In accordance with Section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, I move that Council certify
to the best of each Member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the
open meeting requirement under Virginia Freedom of Information Act and such public business
matters for the purpose identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were
heard, discussed and considered in the meeting by Council. Council Member Mr. Wilt?
Council Member Wilt: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Council Member Mr. Bagdasarian?
Council Member Bagdasarian: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Council Member Nacy?
Council Member Nacy: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Vice Mayor Martinez? [laughter] Oh no, oh no, that was your fault. You brought him up
[laughter] Vice Mayor Steinberg?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: Who? I can't even remember why [crosstalk] Aye. [laughter}
Page 19IDecember 11, 2023
Mayor Burk: Council Member Cummings?
Council Member Cummings: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Mayor Burk, aye. Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Vice Mayor Steinberg: So moved.
Mayor Burk: Second,
Council Member Nacy: Second.
Mayor Burk: All in favor?
Members: Aye.
Mayor Burk: Anybody opposed, we are adjourned.
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