The Council Connection
your connection to City Council by Mayor Justin M. Wilson
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At the end of October, I joined our City Manager, our Finance Director, our Planning & Zoning Director, and City staff to make our annual presentation to the bond rating agencies in New York.
Shortly after the receipt of the rating, the City issued $143.4 million of tax-exempt bonds using a competitive bidding process. The lowest bid was offered by Citigroup with a true interest cost of 3.47%.
Much like individuals must have a credit check performed before acquiring a mortgage, a car loan, or a new credit card, the City must go before Standard & Poor's and Moody's to have the two organizations assess whether we are doing a good job managing the City's finances.
Our capital budget is funded primarily through a mix of debt and current year funding also known as "cash capital." Relating this to your home mortgage, the cash capital is the down payment. We also pay interest each year on the debt that was issued in previous years.
In issuing the City's rating, Moody's cited Alexandria's "healthy financial position given strong operating trends and conservative budgeting practices and that the sizeable tax base will continue to grow and diversify."
Standard & Poor's similarly cited Alexandria's "Robust economic growth and management team that proactively manages the city's economy, finances, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks."
The rating agencies have continued their focus on the City's ESG risks. The agencies cited the City's work managing these risks as a considerable positive, noting the City's work on climate change, flooding and racial equity.
Alexandria is very conservative with our use of debt.
The median for other similarly rated and sized jurisdictions is 2.42%.
In fact, in the Standard & Poor's analysis, they noted that the City was rated higher than the "sovereign" (the US Federal Government) because "we believe the City can maintain better credit characteristics than the U. S. in a stress scenario."
Debt is a tool that allows us to balance the costs of large capital investments across the generations of Alexandria taxpayers that will benefit from them and to pay for our investments from the returns we reap from them.
It is important for us to maintain the careful stewardship that will protect our taxpayers and our City's infrastructure long into the future.
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Public Housing Redevelopment |
In this newsletter, I frequently write about our efforts to create and preserve "affordable housing." The term "affordable housing" itself is imprecise to the extent of being nearly useless, in that it means different things to different people.
We tend to deal with both "committed affordable housing" and "naturally-occurring affordable housing." The former are units that are restricted legally in some way to ensure that they remain affordable to those of moderate incomes for an extended period of time or in perpetuity. The latter are market-rate units that just happen to be affordable at current rates for those of moderate incomes. The latter is largely extinct in the City of Alexandria today.
Most of the new committed affordable housing developed by the City is in partnership with non-profit affordable housing developers, or committed units that are provided by private developers as a development proffer, typically in exchange for density.
Yet, if you ask most residents of our City what they think of when they are asked about "affordable housing," they think of public housing. While Alexandria does have a significant stock of public housing, our public housing authority has not been a significant entity in the recent development of new committed affordable housing in our City. That is about to change.
ARHA directly manages and controls 1,079 units of affordable housing. In addition, ARHA manages the City's Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, which utilizes Federal funding to provide assistance for another 1,906 low-income families to reside in privately-owned housing units. Together, this is approximately 4% of the City's overall housing stock.
Over 41 years ago, the City Council adopted Resolution 830, which committed the City to "one for one" replacement of any public housing unit that was destroyed by redevelopment. The City has met that commitment in each redevelopment effort.
Making the commitment stated in Resolution 830 (now 2876) is rather easy. Actually achieving that replacement, in an environment of dwindling Federal resources and rapidly-appreciating property values, is extraordinarily difficult.
The future state of Resolution 830/2876 and the future of the Andrew Adkins redevelopment effort are linked. The very same factors that prompted a review of Resolution 830 challenged the feasibility of redeveloping the existing Andrew Adkins.
After a few years of reset after the failure of Andrew Adkins, ARHA is getting back on track with both Madden and Ladrey. The authority has worked to restructure the financing of existing public housing properties and better utilize available tools and capabilities. This will facilitate redevelopment beyond Madden and Ladrey.
Alexandria Redevelopment & Housing Authority (ARHA) is an independent entity, with a City Council-appointed Board, but separate from the City, that utilizes Federal funding from the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) to provide housing to low-income residents of Alexandria.
At the federal level, we have seen dramatic changes in how public housing is managed and developed. In the past, the Federal Government had been a proactive participant in bringing about the redevelopment of public housing. This was demonstrated in Alexandria when the City used HOPE VI funding to redevelop 100 units of Public Housing into Chatham Square. This mixed-income development incorporated both market-rate and public housing.
With aging properties sitting on valuable land, ARHA must look at the highest and best use of its land to preserve housing for low-income residents in our City.
In 2008, the City Council adopted the Braddock East Master Plan, which called for redevelopment of several aging public housing properties. By allowing additional density near existing transit, it was designed to encourage private partnership in the redevelopment of this housing.
This is a significant undertaking and we will have a historic opportunity to partner with the private sector and provide new housing for a variety of income levels near existing transit in our City. This effort will also provide financial stability for ARHA in the face of continued change at the Federal level.
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The Future of Freedom House |
In furtherance of this effort, the City commissioned a comprehensive Historic Structures Report (HSR) to formally document the history, plan future interpretation and prioritize rehabilitation. Last fall, the firm commissioned to perform the study formally presented their findings and the final report.
Operating from a prominent location, this human trafficking operation brought enslaved African-Americans from the Chesapeake Bay area to a holding pen surrounding the building, where they were then forced by foot or by ship to Natchez, Mississippi or New Orleans.
This property is a significant piece of Alexandria and our nation's history. The history depicted in the museum today, and the history yet to be unlocked in the building is a story that must be told. I believe we must work to ensure this history remains accessible to the public.
I am excited about the opportunity that this museum presents for the City to better discover, interpret and educate the public on a vital part of American history. I am excited to see this museum open and serving the public again.
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Potomac Yard Metro Opening |
In the fall, WMATA announced an additional delay, of indeterminate length, for the planned opening of the Potomac Yard Metro.
On the front page of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Potomac Yard Metro Station are the seals of four entities: Federal Transit Administration, Department of the Interior, WMATA and the
City of Alexandria. Later in the report there is additional input from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Capital Planning Commission.
The breadth of the entities involved clearly demonstrates the complexity of the project. This project is deeply complex and has been challenging to bring to reality for decades.
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 General Fund taxpayers.
The total project budget is $370 million:
- $250 million is being derived from tax revenues generated in Potomac Yard
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$70 million is regional transportation revenues provided by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority
- $30 million was provided by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to support the new southwest entrance
- $20 million was provided as part of Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) to support the new southwest entrance
While we still have a few more months until opening, it is exciting to see this project nearing the finish line.
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Alexandria remains one in a relatively small list of Virginia jurisdictions who have a private water utility. Virginia American Water Company (VAWC), a subsidiary of a large national company, provides the water supply to Alexandria's residents and businesses.
As a private utility, VAWC is subject to the authority of the State Corporation Commission (SCC) in Richmond. When VAWC seeks a rate increase, they must apply to the SCC with justification. The City has typically intervened in these applications seeking to protect Alexandria ratepayers from exorbitant increases.
In November of 2021, VAWC applied again for a rate increase, this time seeking a 28% increase in rates and a variety of other charges and rate supplements. If approved, on average, Alexandria residential customers would see their bills increase by about 36%.
After analysis, our staff determined that this rate increase was excessive and Council voted to again intervene with the State Corporation Commission to oppose this proposed rate increase.
The SCC will still need to act on these recommendations later this year. I'm hopeful we can continue our efforts working with VAWC to improve our aging water infrastructure but respect our ratepayers and good processes at the same time.
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Last month, the City began notifying 170 Alexandria residents who were randomly selected to participate in ARISE, our guaranteed income pilot program. You can learn more about this pilot program on our site. The City had received 4,149 applications for participation in this program.
The program was championed by Donald Rumsfeld, who was at that time Nixon's Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Rumsfeld was assisted in managing this program by Richard Cheney.
The concept was relatively simple: what if we cut out the bureaucracy of public assistance programs and instead provided a guaranteed monthly income to lower-income populations, without any strings attached? It was driven at that time by a belief that in addition to being costly, the bureaucracy that had been developed to administer our public safety net programs was reducing efficacy of the programs themselves.
Alexandria has now joined this effort. The City Council approved the allocation of $3 million from a portion of the City's American Rescue Plan money. The City will provide 170 families with a $500 per month debit card. This program will last for 24 months.
To gauge the result of this effort, the City will provide case management and engage a research partner. Ultimately, the goal of the effort is to improve the economic stability of lower-income families.
I am hopeful that the City can also glean lessons from this experiment to better guide how we administer other programs designed to alleviate poverty in the future.
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Each year, the City adopts its Legislative Package. Essentially, this is a wish-list of legislative initiatives and budget requests we would like to see enacted by the Virginia General Assembly in the upcoming session. While the state government is certainly a significant financial supporter of the City's budget, Richmond also sets a legal environment that affects how we provide services to our residents.
A year ago, I wrote about the changes that were coming to Richmond, as Governor Youngkin prepared to take the oath of office as our 74th Governor and Republicans took control of the House of Delegates, leading to divided government, after two years with Democratic control of the governorship and both houses of the General Assembly.
As expected, the only legislation making it to the Governor's desk for signature, were changes that enjoyed bipartisan support.
Most of the focus in Richmond surrounded the adoption of a new biennial budget for the Commonwealth. Both sides took advantage of the Commonwealth's flush finances to come to an agreement on the budget.
Along with Councilman Kirk McPike, I serve on the City's Legislative Committee, which recommends the Legislative Package each year to our colleagues.
The package offers the City's perspective on broader policy approaches, including requests for increased local authority, expanded financial flexibility, and less reliance on local funding of mandates from Richmond. However, we do have specific asks within the package, including:
- Authority to establish a local health department (this is currently a state function in Alexandria)
- Increased investment in workforce development
- Increased investment in recovery from COVID-related learning loss in our schools
- Increased investment in the Housing Trust Fund
- Reforms to eviction policies to protect tenants
- Increased funding for early-childhood programs
- Increased funding for flood resiliency
- New authority to support public-safety hiring
One policy area that has emerged as a potential opportunity for bipartisan cooperation has been in housing policy. Governor Youngkin has expressed considerable interest in adopting policies to support new housing creation around the Commonwealth. There is potentially overlap in some of the Governor's proposals and policy approaches that Alexandria is pursuing to increase the supply of housing, particularly affordable housing, in our City.
This will be our last session with this delegation. This November, all of the members of the General Assembly will be up for election, in the newly drawn districts.
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This report showed:
- Average daily ridership doubled from August 2021 to August 2022, with large increases during off-peak periods
- September 2022 has 380,000 boardings, making it DASH's single-highest ridership month since 2015
- Customer and employee feedback has been positive
In approving the most recent budget, the City Council included funding to improve the service on the current DASH Line 30. The expanded funding will extend all weekday peak trips from King Street Metro to Braddock Road Metro, which will provide 10 minute peak headways in Old Town. These enhancements will also extend all weekend trips from Landmark Mall to Van Dorn Metro, to provide 30 minute frequency on South Van Dorn Street, instead of the current 60 minute service. These changes were implemented in October.
The tool our City has used for decades to serve the transit needs of most of our neighborhoods has been the bus.
The route structure approved has a short-term vision and a longer-term 2030 vision. This restructuring is designed to:
- Increase the number of Alexandrians near frequent transit (a bus or train arriving every 15 minutes or better) from 27% to 79%.
- Increase the number of jobs in Alexandria near frequent transit from 40% to 75%.
- Increase the number of jobs accessible by transit (within 45 minutes) to Alexandrians by 18%.
- Increase the number of residents in poverty near frequent transit from 29% to 89%.
- Increase the number of seniors near frequent transit from 23% to 74%.
Earlier last year, DASH celebrated 35 years of serving Alexandria. What started with 17 buses and served less than a million passengers, today serves over 4 million passengers with 85 buses. While new routes have been added, and existing routes tweaked at times, the basic construct of DASH's route network has largely been unchanged.
Our effort is similar, designed to re-imagine our bus routes and ultimately increase ridership and route efficiency.
To provide a factual basis for this effort, a "Transit Choices Report" was developed. This report is a compendium of data on our existing transit network, designed to support this significant undertaking.
Free or not, passengers will not ride a bus unless it is going where they want to go when they want to go there. Increased taxpayer subsidy and more relevant and frequent bus service has made DASH a better mobility tool for our residents. It has also inspired other efforts around our region.
This effort was an important step forward as we create a transit system that serves more of our community with more efficient and relevant service. So far, it looks like it's working.
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While we are not perfect, this is an external recognition that Alexandria is a community that works to ensure equality for all.
Since that action, the City has continued its work to extend protections against discrimination, oftentimes going beyond what state law would allow.
I am pleased that the City has received this recognition, but far more importantly I am pleased that Alexandria is a place where we embrace our LGBTQ community.
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Leaf Collection Continues |
Leaf vacuuming will proceed to each of the designated zones beginning on the scheduled dates. Each zone will take several days to complete.
Additionally, the City is making up to 15 leaf bags available for each residential household. The bags can be picked up at City Hall, the City's self-service shed at the corner of Roth and Business Center Drive or at Charles Houston, Chinquapin, Patrick Henry or Mount Vernon Recreation Centers.
These leaf bags can be placed out for collection on your regulation collection day.
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Paid for by Wilson For Mayor | www.justin.net |
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