Voting Has Begun
On Tuesday June 9th, a Democratic Primary will be held to select nominees for Mayor and the member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 45th District (currently represented by Delegate Rob Krupicka).
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Spring Clean-Up Continues
This is your opportunity to place bulky or metal items at the curb to be removed by the City's Resource Recovery division.
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First Thursday Continues
The monthly street party is from 6:00 - 8:30 PM on Thursday evening.
This month's theme is dogs! Grab your favorite canine and join the crowds on the Avenue in Del Ray.
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Plan Your Neighborhood Parks
There will be three community meetings to collect additional input:
District 1: May 14, 7pm at
Charles Houston
Recreation Center
Includes: Montgomery Park, Powhatan Park, Lee Center District 2: May 27, 7pm at
Mount Vernon
Recreation Center
Includes: Hume Springs Park, 3550 Commonwealth Ave, Landover Park, Goat Hill Park, Timberland Park, Hooffs Run Park & Greenway, Beach Park, Angel Park
District 3: June 4, 7pm at
Patrick Henry Recreation Center
Includes: Luckett/Skate Park, Taney Ave Park, Ewald Park, Mulligan Park, Chambliss Park, Stevenson Park
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Cinema Del Ray Returns!
Thanks to the generosity of Realtor Jen Walker, Cinema Del Ray returns on Saturday May 16th.
The monthly free outdoor movie on the field next to Mount Vernon Recreation Center has become a summer tradition.
This month's movie is Big Hero 6 and it starts when it's dark enough!
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City Mulch
On Monday through Friday from 7 AM until 3:30 PM, residents can pick up mulch at 4215 Eisenhower Avenue.
For $50, the City will deliver. Call 703-746-HELP to schedule delivery.
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Walk Through Alexandria Women's History
At 1:30 PM, the Alexandria Women's History Guided Tour departs from Ramsay House at 221 King Street.
The one mile tour highlights the achievements of women in Alexandria history.
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Real Estate Assessment Appeals Due June 1
Any appeal of 2015 Real Estate Assessments must be filed by June 1 for hearing by the Board of Equalization.
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Taste of Cinco de Mayo Tonight!
From 6 until 9:30 this evening enjoy "Taste of Cinco de Mayo" at the Durant Recreation Center.
Celebrate Mexican culture through food, music and dance.
Tickets are $10 per person, and $20 per family at the door.
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April is always a busy month, and this one was no different.
ACT For Alexandria held their annual Spring 2 Action one day fundraiser. This year, thanks to the generosity of 9,431 unique donors, the campaign raised $1,276,909 for Alexandria non-profits!
Mark has been our acting City Manager since the beginning of the year, and I have every confidence that he will lead City government with energy and experience as we confront the challenges facing our community.
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Proposed Budget Nears Landing
The budget that was presented by the City Manager in March was a continuation of a pattern that has persisted for much of the last decade. Anemic revenue growth, coupled with significant pressure on the expenditure side, resulted in a budget that presented new cuts, but left many unmet needs.
Yet the City Manager worked to create additional revenues to help balance the budget. New fee increases have been proposed. The proposed budget leverages new revenues from Potomac Yard  development. The proposed budget also shifts the costs of some services from the General Fund to special funds generated by fees. In the end, the proposed budget relies on a paltry 1.7% increase in General Fund revenue.
As has been the case for much of the past decade, the budget also proposes significant reductions to ongoing City spending:
A net reduction of 3.8 full time headcount equivalents. If approved, the City will have the smallest workforce in over a decade.
Elimination of a Deputy City Manager position
Elimination of a City Architect position
Renegotiation of the CIty's agreement with the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Home
Reduction to Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association (ACVA) advertising
Reduction of two part-time juvenile probation officer positions
Elimination of City funding of the Alexandria Law Library
Close Cora Kelly Recreation Center on holidays
Close William Ramsay Recreation Center on holidays and Sundays
Close Warwick Pool for the summer (renovation is now planned and funded in FY 2017)
Reduction of Chinquapin Recreation Center summer operating hours
Eliminate one refuse truck and two vacant driver positions
Full automation of the Union Street Parking Garage
While reductions were necessary, the proposed budget does suggest new investments to core areas of City operations:
Over $4 million of new resources to fund the City's obligations to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)
Over $2 million to address long-standing pay inequities within the Alexandria Police Department
Expansion of Alexandria Fire Department career ladders
Early in our annual budget process, state law requires the Council to adopt a cap in the real estate tax rate that we might consider. Once the cap is adopted, the Council can ultimately lower the rate, but not increase it that year.
We have now reached the critical part of the budget process as the Council begins to formulate a consensus around changes that must be made. At this point in the process, the City Manager typically provides the Council with a series of revenue and expenditure re-estimates. These changes reflect new information learned since the budget was proposed.
The Council is trying a new system than has previously been used to manage the Add/Delete process. In the past, each individual member would submit a list of proposed "adds" with offset "deletes," and we would gather and attempt to reconcile each list.
The new process requires that all additions or deletions to the proposed budget have at least 3 identified supporters, staff analysis, and alignment with the City's Strategic Plan.
At this point, the major items of consensus appear to be:
An additional appropriation of $1 million to the Alexandria City Public Schools (this narrows, but does not eliminate the gap between the School Board and City Manager's proposed budget).
Funding for the staffing necessary to provide fire suppression at the newly opened Fire Station 210 (more detail later in this newsletter)
Funding to integrate the Alexandria Law Library into the Alexandria Library
Restoration of a portion of the City's Transportation Improvement Program (utilizing a lower than expected WMATA subsidy request)
Providing some funding to support an existing community partnership to make improvements at Maury Elementary School
There may still be other changes as Council finalizes its decisions in advance of the May 7th budget adoption.
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Ensuring a Safe Community
The Council identified $16 million of capital funds to construct the new station, and in Fiscal Year 2011, a contract was issued for construction of a new station with new training facilities.
The grant covers the salaries and benefits for new firefighters. However, after two years, the recipient is required to pick up and maintain the expenditure.
In January of 2014, the City was awarded a SAFER grant to cover the firefighters necessary to open Fire Station 210. At that time, the City Manager came to the Council indicating his decision to reject  the grant due to the obligation of the "Maintenance of Effort" provisions, and the City's precarious long-term financial outlook.
Later that year, the City Manager provided a second recommendation for staffing the new fire station 210. In this proposal, he proposed moving the Peak Medic Unit and the fire engine at Fire Station 204 (Powhatan Street) to Fire Station 210.
In rejecting the City Manager's recommendation, Council did give direction that the Fire Station 210 fire suppression staffing would be included in the FY 2016 budget when it was proposed.
In the Fall last year, the City's new Fire Chief came to the Council with an entirely new model for cross-trained firefighter-medics. With the versatility offered by this new model, the Fire Chief believed the plan would allow staffing of Fire Station 210 this year.
Unfortunately, higher than expected retirements and less medics opting for cross-training led to slower implementation. That created the unfortunate situation of Fire Station 210 opening with no fire suppression services available. While the station does have medic capacity, it will be the City's responsibility to ensure that the station has the appropriate fire suppression capacity.
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Potomac Yard Metro Moves Forward
In 2008, along with then-Councilman Rob Krupicka, I proposed a new start to efforts to bring Metro to Potomac Yard. We included language in the City's Transportation Master Plan explicitly calling for a new station at Potomac Yard. We also tied the construction and funding of Metro to the development occurring in the Yard.
The result is a funding plan for Potomac Yard Metro that not only leverages the development activity in Potomac Yard, but also does so without requiring the contributions of taxpayers elsewhere in the City.
A little over a month ago, the project took a gigantic step forward with the release .jpg) of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for public review and comment. The release of the draft statement, coordinated with the Federal Transit Administration, the National Park Service, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), kicked off a lively period of public input which leads up to the Council's adoption of our Locally Preferred Alternative. The Council will be holding a Public Hearing on Saturday May 16th to solicit public input, and a special meeting on May 20th to make that selection.
Of the options being considered by the EIS process, Alternate B is the option that has been seen as the most lucrative for the taxpayers of the City, due to its proximity to the concentration of development potential. However, construction of Alternative B would require the acquisition of a small portion of National Park Service land.
Last month, another large milestone was achieved as the City announced that it had received approval from the National Park Service on a "Net Benefits Agreement." Such an agreement is required for the National Park Service to transfer land to the City.
The agreement that was published provides for $12 million of improvements to the adjacent National Park Service land. These improvements include expansion of the existing National Park Service land and improvements to both Dangerfield Island and the Mount Vernon trail. The City has also made a series of policy changes to address any potential impact.
Once the Environmental Impact Statement process concludes with a Record of Decision, the construction efforts can commence.
As the City focuses on efforts to erase the structural imbalance in our budget, the successful completion of this project is a key component in that effort.
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 Host a Town Hall in Your Living Room! My regular series of Town Hall Meetings continue!
You supply the living room and a bunch of your friends and neighbors. I will supply a member of the Alexandria City Council (me) with the answers to any of your questions about our City.
Just drop us a line and we'll get a Town Hall on the calendar! Thanks for the interest! |
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Upcoming Issues
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Taking Broadband Matters into our Own Hands
A little over a year ago, I proposed that the City develop a broadband plan to bring true competition to Alexandria's broadband market.
In Chattanooga, Tennessee, a community of 170,000, a public electricity utility used hundreds of millions of dollars to build thousands of miles of underground fiber. In doing so, the utility enabled the residents and businesses of Chattanooga to receive the fastest Internet connectivity in our nation.
For years Alexandria has sought new private investment in broadband infrastructure. For most of our residents, we have one company providing Internet connectivity, television and telephone service. Regardless of the performance of that company, technological innovation and reliability thrives on competition.
This is an issue that affects not only residents, but also our businesses and the ability of our community to attract commerce. In 2009, the City made great strides in bringing Verizon FIOS to our City. Unfortunately, Verizon made the decision to cease any new deployments of FIOS nationally, and Alexandria was left out. With the support of the Council our Staff will now be issuing an RFI (Request for Information) to gauge the interest of private partners in working with the City to create municipal infrastructure to support new broadband deployment. This is an exciting project, and one that gives the City the best chance to leverage its unique assets to bring new broadband services to our residents and businesses. The results of the RFI and a draft of the City's new broadband plan will come to the Council in the fall.
Since that time, the City have returned some of the savings to those who pay the Residential Refuse Fee (charged only to those who receive City trash service) and used some of the savings to invest in new services. These funds were used to fund new street recycling cans around the City, and to create a new farmers market food waste/compost program.
The proposed budget has two new funding initiatives associated with the reinvestment opportunities made available by the lower costs.
The proposed budget suggests that the City build on the success of the Farmers Market Compost project by creating a new Residential  Food Waste Composting pilot program for 2,500 residences. This pilot would collect curbside food waste for those residences.
Additionally, the proposed budget includes funding for residential trash cans in Old Town. For a variety of reasons, Old Town homeowners are not issued the residential refuse containers that are issued to homeowners throughout the remainder of the City (despite the fact that these homeowners pay the same fee).
The proposed budget would provide funding for less than half of the necessary cans. Next year's budget would include the remaining funding, and the cans would be distributed to homeowners (who wish to receive them) in 2017.
One of the challenges of land-use planning in a community as dense as Alexandria is the presence and necessary accommodation of heavy industrial uses. This is particularly acute in our West End, and is a central focus of the on-going Eisenhower West Small Area planning process.
The City has provided input and suggestions into Federal and State rule making and legislative processes in the attempt to gain some safety protections for residential communities.
Sometimes the issues with these types of heavy industrial uses are not always obvious. In 2009, the Council approved the Landmark/Van Dorn Small Area Plan, which included the concept of a multi-modal bridge connecting the Van Dorn Metro Station with Pickett Street to improve accessibility of the existing Metro station.
The transportation planning for the actual location of that bridge has been under way in conjunction with our Eisenhower West work.
Unfortunately, last week Norfolk Southern notified the City that they would not permit that bridge to traverse over their railroad operations, thus precluding any of the City's alternatives.
While there will be some effort to arrive at an accommodation, it would appear this determination forces the City back to the drawing board on improved connectivity to the Metro station.
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