After the ceremonious votes last week, City Council got back to business in a work session all about the future of Falls Church. “Comprehensive Plan” usually doesn’t make headlines, nor does it inspire people to show up to community meetings, but hear me out – this is important. The Comp […]
By now, you may have read the headlines or heard the news that there were some “big signings” this week. Yes, there were some important votes – some of the biggest and most impactful to the city for years to come – by both the City Council and the School Board. Read on […]
We are coming down to the wire with the West Falls Church projects. We had a 5 hour work session this week to discuss the latest development plans and the comprehensive agreement (the legal contract between the city and the developers). We are still targeting a vote next week, followed by […]
This week’s blog post will be short and sweet. With the budget behind us, the high school and economic development projects will be our main focus for the next few weeks and the primary topic in our upcoming meetings. You can continue to offer public comment at our meetings and/or email us […]
And that’s a wrap! We adopted the FY20 budget this week in what I guess was record time, wrapping up the budget vote by 9 pm (although our meeting lasted til 11 pm on other business), with no real estate tax increase as expected. Read on for my thoughts about the new budget […]
After a marathon meeting + work session combo, this week’s post will be short and sweet. We are on hiatus from public meetings next week, but there is no rest for the weary. Here are the big dates to keep in mind: City staff moves back to City Hall: city offices […]
We had our final FY20 budget work session, ahead of next week’s mark up where we make adjustments before adoption on April 22. We reviewed departmental highlights in housing and human services, library, public works, schools, human resources/city employee compensation, and senior tax relief. While each of those areas merit an entire […]
For the first time in a long time – we voted on the annual budget, CIP, and tax rate at first reading without much fanfare or public comment; we’ll have a final budget vote on 4/22. What was a tougher conversation was a request to authorize additional money for the City […]
March Madness has begun, and we’ve got a different kind of March madness underway locally. Aside from the annual budget (see last week’s post), we’re in 7 week sprint towards votes on a comprehensive agreement, a 99 year ground lease, and a conceptual plan for the 10 acre West Falls Church project in May. We made a commitment to citizens is that we would not issue any construction bonds for the high school until we ink a […]
Maybe the the proverb should be “fourth time’s a charm”? As anticipated, the start of this budget cycle (my fourth!) has been pleasant, a marked departure from previous years. The confluence of multiple factors (adherence to budget guidance + higher forecasted revenues + lower school enrollment + the spirit of “we’re all […]