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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/1/2020 - Special - DRAFT February 1, 2020 27 Roanoke County Administration Center 5204 Bernard Drive Roanoke, Virginia 24018 The Board of Supervisors of Roanoke County, Virginia met this day atthe Roanoke County Administrator Center Fourth Floor Training Room for the purpose of a Board of Supervisors Retreat. Audio recordings of this meeting will be held on file for a minimum of five (5) years in the office of the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors. IN RE: CALL TO ORDER Chairman Radford called the meeting to order at 9:04 a.m. The roll call was taken. MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman David Radford; Supervisors Paul M. Mahoney, Martha B. Hooker, Phil C. North and P. Jason Peters MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Daniel R. O’Donnell, County Administrator; Richard Caywood, Assistant County Administrator; Rebecca Owens, Assistant County Administrator, Peter Lubeck, Senior Assistant Attorney and Deborah C. Jacks, Chief Deputy Clerk to the Board IN RE: NEW BUSINESS 1. Guest Speakers Dr. Alice L. Kassens, professor of Economics at Roanoke College provided a presentation, a copy of which is on file in the office of the Clerk to the Board. Dr. Kassens gave presentation. Supervisor Hooker asked with regard to the phone pools are they landline or cell phones with Dr. Kassens responding Roanoke is half and half so they do the same with calls. Mr. O’Donnell, County Administrator, stated there is a decrease in manufacturing prospects and asked if these numbers take this into consideration with Dr. Kassens responding in the affirmative. Supervisor North stated it appears we are positioned positively. Supervisor Peters commented Dr. Kassens number affirmed what his numbers show. February 1, 2020 28 Supervisor Mahoney stated he is the pessimist in the room and he looks at it as what has the Federal Reserve done, are we at QE4 or QE5. The Fed has no other tools to correct a problem like they did in 2008. We look , at least accordingly to the Wall Street Journal, at least in middle America that manufacturing is in recession, we probably have had the best stimulus you could ever hope for with a tax cut. His pessimism is based on historical perspective. We are due for a recession. He asked Mr. O’Donnell and Ms. Owens to start planning and preparing. Dr. Kassens advised yes, not a particular year. There will be a recession, just what she has seen is that we don’t anticipate it to be the near future, but gives prime opportunities to start preparing for when one will come, because it will come; it is the nature of the business cycle. Best time to prepare is in the good times. Supervisor Mahoney added that he thinks it is exciting that we have what Carilion and Virginia Tech are doing, but the pessimist looks back in the past, the Roanoke region had all their eggs in the railroad basket. Now, it looks like we have all the eggs in Carilion’s basket. If Medicare-for-All comes down the pike, what does that do to Carilion? It scares him to have all of our eggs in one basket. Supervisor Peters stated he agrees with Supervisor Mahoney with regard to healthcare. What happens when the demographics goes back to the younger workers. Diversification is recommended. High technical industries is recommended. Supervisor North stated at Norfolk Southern, they always forecast with a recession; 75% and 50%. These are informed plans. Do you recommend and for how many years. Dr. Kassens agreed, but did not provide a timeline for the number of years. Sean E. Ekiert, CFA, Managing Director, Raymond James Public Finance/Debt Investment Banking provided a presentation, a copy of which is on file in the office to the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors. Supervisor North asked if we should refinance some of our higher interest bonds with Ms. Owens advising they look at refinancing every year. Mr. Ekiert made the following suggestions when dealing with a recession: (1) multi-year or more robust budgeting (2) looking at key indicators when providing periodic reporting (3) Build additional reserves for use in an economic downturn with longer periods to rebuild and (4) capital can be reallocated when resources are constrained. Supervisor North stated Mr. Ekiert stated there were indications that we should be watching. Is that something we can look at going forward? Mr. O’Donnell stated staff does that informally as part of the budget process, but we don’t have any policy. Supervisor North stated he would like to see the chart. Mr. O’Donnell indicated staff does not have a formal mechanism. Mr. Caywood asked what effect is the China shutdown going to have. Dr. Kassens advised it would depend on the outbreak. It has been her experience that data is unreliable, so there is the great unknown. She thinks the impact being if they are not producing or the prices could go up or it could be more competitive with other areas. Worldwide there should be some substitutes; expect a price increase. It would be mitigated by buying those goods somewhere else. February 1, 2020 29 Supervisor Radford asked what indicators are triggers; his triggers started in 2006 and in the first quarter of 2007, the bank shut off their credit. How do we figure out what the trigger is? Dr. Kassens advised there is more than one trigger; a collection of things including housing market, finance issues. As far as what a locality would do is certainly look at if you consider yourself to be in a housing bubble, looking at prices and how quickly they are growing or not. Also, looking at local finance, banks may not be willing to share, but where are their loans going to. What can you do, the Federal Reserve bank has several that goes to the Virginia level, but you can even do them in Roanoke using some tools such as looking at Google searches for unemployment insurance. You can create your own index. The Board recessed for ten minutes at 10:25 p.m. 2. Update on ongoing Administrative Initiatives: (a) Employee Engagement Survey – Anita Hassell, Director of Human Resources Ms. Hassell provided a brief overview, outlined the status of where staff is in the process and future steps. Supervisor Mahoney stated one of his concerns is that when you try and fix the problem, the employees do not like the fix. So, they are going to say you did not solve the problem, but you did something the employees do not like. He can see that being a lose, lose. Mr. O’Donnell stated that would be the purpose of the focus group, to minimize that. He does not want to go too far into the results of the survey, but the two big areas that came out as drivers in the wrong direction were leadership and managing change and the second one is compensation and benefits. The real question is how closely are those two related to each other. (b) Compensation and Classification Study – Anita Hassell, Director of Human Resources Ms. Hassell advised the purposes of the study were to ensure that our jobs are aligned internally and also to ensure that we are paying a competitive wage. Ms. Hassell then explained the four (4) phase of the study. Supervisor North asked how many jobs, with Ms. Hassell advising 315. Mr. O’Donnell advised there may be a separate scale for public safety. It will probably not get the final report until April; so it should be next year’s budget. (c) Rural Broadband Planning – Bill Hunter, Director of Communications and Information Technology February 1, 2020 30 Mr. Hunter advised he did not understand how large this issue was. The first phase was the Broadband Authority and now we are in the process of seeing where it is and where it is not. Staff has launched a soft survey and followed up with a targeted survey. We have made good partnerships with Roanoke County Public Schools, Department of Library Services. So far, we are at 700 responses. Supervisor Hooker stated that some citizens advise they have it, but it is too expensive. Next steps will be collecting and plotting the research. The big return from the private providers and their concern is how many will actually take it. Supervisor Hooker advised that she is hearing that they want to be a part, but they only make money on all services, not just internet. Supervisor Peters asked about ShenTel and Roanoke City with Mr. Hunter advised there is existing fiber in the ground. Supervisor Peters then asked about Cox. Mr. Hunter advised that is television only. Supervisor Hooker advised that this has become more prevalent when selling homes. There is a real reluctance to buy a home that does not have internet access. She would expect to see some stagnant real estate areas. Supervisor Mahoney stated with VATI grants, we would need to find a private partner with Mr. Hunter advising we would need several partners. Supervisor Hooker noted that it used to be a “luxury” and now it is driven with work issues. Supervisor Peters added even the children are now given laptops. Supervisor Hooker noted that the libraries are letting students check out “hot-spots.” (d) Employee Safety and Security – Richard Caywood, Assistant County Administrator; Rob Light, Director of General Services Mr. Caywood outlined employee safety and security. He noted there were three (3) legs: physical building security, training and preparation and formal threat assessment. Staff is currently working on the Administration Building. There will be more changes in the future, more door locks and panic alarms. Green Ridge is another building that will need to be looked at. On the education, threat assessment training, mental health 101 training. Mr. O’Donnell stressed the importance of education and a more behavioral approach. Supervisor Radford advised he had taken a tour of four (4) schools and was impressed with the security. My Caywood stated a lot of the locked doors was a direct result of Sandy Hook. Threat assessment is more internalized; immediate threat, employee concerns and a way for employees to notify of potential threats. The other threat is from relationship issues. 3. Strategic Planning Priorities (a) Economic/Community Development Strategic Plan (2020) – Philip Thompson, Director of Planning February 1, 2020 31 Mr. Thompson provided outline of the 460 Study, 460 Corridor in Bonsack, What does it look like? What is the scope? Mr. Thompson advised Supervisor Peters asked for a Vinton Plan. They have Vinton Corridor Plan, Mt. Pleasant Plan and the Explore Adventure Plan. Where do they fall and what is the scope. Our Comp Plan was done in 2005, so where do all of these plans fall based on limited staffing from a Board perspective. Supervisor Peters stated the Community Strategic Plan, when it was adopted, was a five to seven year plan. He does not see a lot of changes to rebuild. We have worked on Oak Grove and 419. We have not flushed out Explore Park. Thinks that the Community Strategic Plan in 2021 is too much. We are doing so many pieces to go back and “muddy the water.” Mr. O’Donnell advised he agreed. Supervisor Peters stated he does not feel we are far enough down the road to say let’s do this again. Supervisor Hooker stated with regard to West County area, we just announced Mack, we have the sidewalk on the other side of Route 460. Can we just tweak certain areas? There are a lot of things going on. Mr. O’Donnell stated they are not strategic planning uses, but community planning. Supervisor Peters stated we just need to update current plans, because things have changed a lot. Mr. Thompson stated from a staff perspective, look at goals and objectives. Supervisor Peters stated should we look at the Comp Plan as it is so dated. Mr. Thompson stated he agreed, but where does it fit. Additionally, we need to look at the Zoning Ordinance after the Comp Plan. Ms. Jill Loope, Director of Economic Development stated an Economic Strategic Plan would feed into that. Supervisor Radford stated he thought the APA recommended smaller pockets, more community participation. He agrees with Supervisor Peters, no community strategic plan. Ms. Hooker advised she is also in agreement. Supervisor North stated he has had two community meetings and what he learned is that we have had a Hollins Plan for ten (10) years and two things that came out was what is going on with various property. The second things was sidewalks and safety down the corridor. They bring out more things. He agrees with not doing a new Community Strategic Plan. He added that his fellow board members to hold community meetings. Mr. Thompson stated there would be a booklet for each area and provided copies of examples. Supervisor Mahoney stated he thought staff wanted a more focused direction from the Board. Mr. Thompson stated do we do an overall Comp Plan or add on more detailed separate studies. February 1, 2020 32 Mr. O’Donnell stated what do we do with an Economic/Community Strategy not from a land use issue, but incentives and how does that play into Community Plans. There are a lot of economic drivers but should we be doing more or less. Things we can do, but we are not such as business improvement districts, tax incentive financing and other tools that we have not done or know to do. He thinks we are doing a great job, but there is a lot of things going on. There is no overarching strategy. The other piece is finding end users for large lots. How do we tie in Fralin and Carilion? It is more of a policy than land use. What is the priority of the Board? Supervisor North stated we all need to walk the walk and talk the talk. We need to have talks quarterly with Carilion. Mr. O’Donnell stated these are goals of a community strategic plan. There are a lot of scales that can be used. There are only so many resources, the scale would be important. Mr. Caywood asked if the Board wants to look at zoning? Supervisor Peters stated he believes in the corridors. They need to be treated as such. Secondly, we need to take our goggles off with regard to incentives. Open to any and all that will grow the community. He does want incentives published; does not want them on paper. Don’t take anything off the table. The other concern is when we are talking about economic development – lacking land. Do we want to acquire land? Where and take the steps to make that happen. Does not want to lose to Botetourt and Franklin. Mr. O’Donnell stated should we be looking at incentives to encourage redevelopment. Supervisor Peters reiterated do not take anything off the table. There are large tracks of land, are we prepared to take advantage of those? The Board then recessed from 12:13 until 12:39. It was the direction from Board is to go back to staff and establish priority item recommendations as well as the Economic and Community Development Plan. 4. Possible Board Goals for Discussion: (a) Economic and Community Development Strategic Plan: (1) Align Planning, Economic Development and Development Services functions Mr. O’Donnell advised this is something the Administrative Staff has already been working on. (2) Consider impact of Fralin Biomed and Entrepreneurial Economy and determine best ways to leverage these for Economic Growth February 1, 2020 33 Mr. O’Donnell advised this is something the Administrative Staff is already doing. (3) Develop Measurable Goals for Economic Growth Supervisor Peters stated he would like to see. Supervisor North stated in his opinion we should take the top ten businesses in Roanoke County or some number and just hear back from them what is going on at least once a year and if there are an opportunities. In order words, just keep the Board abreast of what is going on. For example, he did not know anything about a hotel in Hollins until the day of something going on out there at the Hotel in Hollins. He is using this as an example; but if there is something going on and you want to name it Project XYZ, just tell us about XYZ at the appropriate time. Staff normally tells us when it comes time for the incentive discussion. Ms. Loope explained a lot of projects start years and year ago and many of them never happen. The Board was notified at the appropriate time. Mr. O’Donnell advised these are two different things, developing measurable goals and keeping you informed of things coming down the pipeline are two different things. He feels we can work together to come up with some kind of information sheet, monthly. Supervisor North stated just feed it to Mr. O’Donnell and let him advise the Board at the appropriate time, which he usually does in his newsletter. Supervisor Peters stated he does not understand. What was the thought process behind this item? Mr. O’Donnell advised if we do a Strategic Plan, what should we be measuring. Supervisor Mahoney advised he knows Ms. Loope has been doing all this, but he wants a dashboard, a one page piece of paper that says in the last year, Ms. Loope and her staff have worked on X number of projects and we brought in Y number of factories that invested X in Roanoke County and that is generating Y dollars in new local taxes. He knows she does that. Supervisor Peters advised that is what his thought was and then Supervisor North brought the ten (10) business thing. He agrees with the intent. Supervisor O’Donnell stated he thinks staff can do that outside the context of the Strategic Plan, just a reporting mechanism. Supervisor Mahoney stated they are doing that now. Mr. O’Donnell stated there are two things that can be done without putting too much onerous on Ms. Loope; a monthly activity report and then every six (6) months to a year the bigger picture of what is measurable. February 1, 2020 34 Supervisor Mahoney stated he wanted to be careful, because many of the issues that Economic Development are working on are confidential and he does not want this FOIA’d everywhere. He does not want anything in writing. Maybe Ms. Loope can come in once a quarter in closed session and briefs the Board. Mr. O’Donnell responded as long and the current County Attorney tells us we can do that. Supervisor Hooker stated she likes the idea of patting yourself on the back; brag about what is being accomplished. She noted that she and Supervisor Radford were at an event and defending the great things going on, if we just had a regular bullet points; talking points. Supervisor North stated the Board is trying to be ambassadors. Supervisor Mahoney stated to be fair it is also a report card and if Ms. Loope gives us a report after a year and zero came in would create a measurable goal. Mr. Caywood stated that is where you could have some macro strategic drivers. Ms. Loope advised not just economic development; both Planning and Parks, Recreation and Tourism are working on economic development. Mr. O’Donnell stated the recent forum that we had, we would go every six (6) months. Supervisor North agreed. Supervisor Hooker stated they still need ongoing talking points for when they meet with the Rotary Club, etc. Supervisor North stated he used six (6) or eight (8) slides out of that in his Town Hall meeting and then we had a question and answer period about other things; it was a great presentation. Additionally, he felt the press release was effective and would like to see on a regular basis. Supervisor Peters stated he believes a lot of this is already being done, it just needs to go to the Board. (4) Update the building field inspection and permitting process with software, mobile apps and enhanced combination inspectors to between streamline the plan review and building experience with that department Supervisor Radford advised that the Homebuilders really like the idea of a combination inspector: good idea to streamline. This item will be separate from Strategic Planning Process. (5) Review and discuss possible incentive tools to encourage new development and redevelopment February 1, 2020 35 Supervisor Radford brought up an example how our philosophy in the building department, Community Development are doing with Economic Development. He agreed with Ms. Loope that her department is not the only one; his company does every day. On the corner of Manassas and View Avenue, we bought a piece of property (for $14,000), $1,000 toward tax revenues coming in. They were able to take that corner lot, take the house down and divided the lot into two (2). We are going to be selling those houses for $619,000. The real estate houses is 6,757, minus the $1,000 that it was already producing. We produced $5,757 as a small engine back to the County for revenue. So, when they first brought the property, he would like the Community Development Department to move that property along. Instead he had gotten little road blocks along the way. It seems like nobody knows we are adding that value to the County, other than Ken Fay. We see it in a report where the assessed values go up. He is just an example. Developers are going to come back and look for opportunities like that. What he is saying is do we truly have our door open? Are we recognizing the opportunity to try to capture and remake those neighborhoods and communities with older housing stock? He does not know how to throw that into a goal, but using this as an example. Supervisor Peters stated he has a great deal of respect for our Planning and Zoning Department so he does not want this to sound negative at all, but over the course of time, we had a lot of building that took place in the 1990 and early 2000 and the sentiment in the community is that we went from how can we help you get this done to how can we slow this process down. He knows it is not their mindset, but it is perceived that way and a lot of that is still out there. He knows there are a lot of steps and knows Mr. Caywood is working with the second floor to reevaluate some things, but he is going to ask again, are we marking sure what we have in place are not items that are hindering development in Roanoke County. He knows we have talked about this before and are we reevaluating our policies to make sure we are not overstepping what the State requires, are we making it more difficult for people to develop here. We like to say we are open to business, but are we? Mr. Caywood advised that was the spirit of the outreach he did with the homebuilders on Thursday, a lot of the mechanical stuff has been built up over the years and we need to look at each step with a critical eye, do we still needs this, etc. What he found was there was a number of things had to do with a one-time problem somewhere so we created a sheaf of paper to try to say we were doing something about that war story from the past. So, his outreach was there is an Administrator abroad that supports that as an ongoing effort with the industry and many of those things that are administrative in nature, some require Board action depending on their nature, but the first step was to reach back out again and say we welcome feedback. At the end of the day, we need to change the tangible things that we can change. It is hard to change the general sense, it is easier to change the “you make us do this and nobody else does, why?.” Supervisor Peters stated he has heard that from the people in his industry. He hears when he goes here he does not have to do that, why does Roanoke County require that. February 1, 2020 36 Mr. Caywood stated unless we can show why we do, we should consider stopping, which is what we did on the single-family home side. It has gotten largely good feedback and he thinks it runs in tandem with what Supervisor Radford brought up earlier, making us more accessible electronically to the industry. Mr. O’Donnell stated that is an expansion of item number four (4). Rather than say let’s do this specific thing for inspections, let’s look at a broad goal to look at how to streamline and increase the friendliness toward the development community. We need to come up with a broader title for that. After this meeting today, staff can come up a list of more defined goals and send them back out to the Board for comment to make sure we are on the same page. Supervisor Peters stated his concern is that we already live under a regulatory environment anyway. He does not want to make it more stringent and there is fear with the current political goings on in Richmond they will become even more regulatory. This sends shock waves through the building community he deals with. He just wants to make sure we are open for business and backing up what we are saying. Mr. O’Donnell responded he thinks to examine and streamline the permitting process to encourage development and redevelopment. Mr. Caywood responded that a really good thing he would like to see more of brought to the Board is the example that six (6) months ago, Steve Simon brought to the Board a change in the Fire Code to make it easier to develop some existing properties, distances to hydrants, etc. It may not sound like much, but if you do some tangible things to get to where there are fewer barriers with a project like this. Supervisor Peters stated the bottom line for him is whether it is in Economic Development, Planning or Zoning, he wants the attitude to be across the Board that we want to help. It does not want anything off the table, he wants anything that someone wants to propose to us that we take a look at. He does not want it to be said that we don’t do that. Supervisor Radford stated one of the more onerous things that the builders and also landowners have to deal with are the Federal regulations with regard to erosion and sediment control. He appreciates what our E & S Department is doing, but he is getting complaints from other builders. Last night, they were complaining about different things that we have to do in the County and why do it in our County and not in that County. Mr. O’Donnell stated that we need to get the input from the community and then try to find ways to streamline what we do. (6) Workforce development resources and opportunities (7) Location of public facilities to maximize economic development opportunities (i.e. Hollins Library and Fire Station (b) Improve employee engagement – follow-up process from Employee Engagement Survey February 1, 2020 37 (c) Complete Compensation and Classification Study and implement changes (d) Determine best solid waste transportation option with RVRA and plan for conversion Mr. O’Donnell advised that staff is also already working on. Conclusion will need to be reached in about a year. Supervisor Hooker advised she wanted to give a shout out to Rob Light and Philip Thompson for reaching out to the community and collecting data. She so appreciates; the idea of getting a third-party to validate the numbers is great. All of these things working together. She stated she is very appreciative. Supervisor Radford asked if Dan Miles knows about the third-party, which Mr. O’Donnell advised in the affirmative stating he has already handed over his data to Mr. Light. The Roanoke Valley Resource Authority Board is also aware. (e) Ongoing review of Budget and Finance Policies to prepare for possible economic downturn (multi-year operating budget) Mr. O’Donnell noted this is also something staff is working on; will take time. Supervisor Mahoney stated we are going to be here for two years, maybe longer, what do we want to accomplish? What he has heard so far is like we did at the last Board meeting, we had a work session and we are going to have to make some decisions with regard to the County’s capital program. We are going to make a decision with the schools capital program, we are going to address many of these economic development topics. We are going to have to address the engagement and classification study, RVRA and maybe sometime in the fall, staff can take a little bit of time to look at maybe a multi-year budget. He thinks that is a lot of stuff to do and if we can get all of that done, he thinks that would be pretty good. Is he missing something, is there anything else that could be added to that. He thinks this is great and if we focus all of our attentions on these topics, and if we can do it all we would be doing a good job for the citizens. Supervisor North stated we must be flexible, because something could come up next month that we did not have on this list. Supervisor Mahoney stated you might get a surprise with something out of Richmond and any of these ideas may fall by the wayside. Mr. O’Donnell stated staff would put everything together and bring back to the Board. He stated he feels it was a good conversation. Supervisor North stated he felt this was a good presentation. February 1, 2020 38 IN RE: ADJOURNMENT Chairman Radford adjourned the meeting at 1:20 p.m. Submitted by: Approved by: ________________________ ___________________________________ Deborah C. Jacks David F. Radford Chief Deputy Clerk to the Board Chairman