Alexandria City Council reviews $221M public safety budget

Dozens of ICE Out of Alexandria protesters packed the council chambers at Del Pepper Community Resource Center Wednesday night as the Alexandria City Council worked through its third FY 2027 budget work session, reviewing 13 departments and agencies that together make up the city's $221 million Safe, Secure & Just portfolio.

Councilman John Taylor Chapman was absent. The remaining five members — Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley, Councilman Canek Aguirre, Councilman Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi, and Councilwoman Jacinta E. Greene — spent two hours on police, fire, the sheriff, the 911 center, the courts, the Office of Independent Policing Auditor, juvenile services, and shelter care — generating a stack of budget memo requests and surfacing funding gaps that City Manager James Parajon acknowledged will be hard to close in a year with only 2.2% revenue growth.

FY 2027 Proposed Operating Budget - Safe, Secure, and Just Community Functional Area (City of Alexandria)

The sheriff's office drew the most attention and the longest session — 36 minutes — as the protest crowd held signs throughout. The Alexandria Brief's full coverage of that exchange is here.

Police Department

Police Chief Tarrick McGuire presented a budget that reflects the elimination of nine vacant sworn officer positions — a change driven by the city's collective bargaining agreement and a council recommendation to address a roughly $2 million cost differential. The proposed authorized force would drop from 322 to 313 sworn officers.

McGuire said the officer-to-resident ratio would remain at 1.97 per 1,000 residents at 313 — above the national average of 1.61 — and that the department is currently working through a geospatial redistricting of beats to better align staffing with call density.

Mayor Gaskins pressed on the city's co-responder program, ACORP, which saw calls drop from 596 in 2023 to 404 in 2024. Council asked for a budget memo on what it would cost to expand ACORP's hours and what data explains the decline. Gaskins noted that 14 of 27 crossing guard positions are currently vacant, backfilled by contractor, and asked for an analysis of whether expanding hours for existing staff would be more cost-effective than continuing to grow the contract.

Police Chief Tarrick McGuire during the hearing. (Screenshot/City of Alexandria)

Emergency and Customer Communications (911)

The city's 911 center has lost three full-time employees to tech companies since January — and received a fourth resignation the morning of the work session.

Director Renee Gordon said tech companies are offering more money and more appealing working conditions, and that the city's remote-work technology is aging and falling behind peer jurisdictions. The department is working with Arlington County on a new phone system upgrade.

Council asked for a budget memo on what a phased technology upgrade would cost, including existing capital improvement plan funding and grants the department is pursuing. The proposed budget includes a $10,000 hiring and retention bonus — comparable to D.C. and Fairfax — to help recruit new staff.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court

Chief Judge Sean Sherlock told the council the court's technology is "pretty dated" compared to surrounding jurisdictions. The court has been accepted into a state virtual court pilot program covering 13 jurisdictions and is beginning to receive equipment — but Sherlock said he won't know how it will fully work until he attends training later this month.

The court handled approximately 4,100 cases last year. Sherlock said that number is expected to grow due to pending legislation that may expand the JDR court's subject matter jurisdiction. He offered to brief council on specifics after July 1, when new laws take effect. The vast majority of the court's budget is state-funded; the city's contribution covers a 15% salary supplement for seven clerks plus non-personnel costs — approximately $32,000.

Office of Independent Policing Auditor

Director Amaratu Kamara told council a vacant investigator position — her previous role — remains unfilled. She said her goal is to hire someone by end of summer, pending the HR process.

Kamara also flagged that the city manager's office rejected a supplemental request for a $29,640 community liaison position — even though the auditor's office had proposed fully self-funding it by taking a corresponding budget reduction. The city manager said it is not unusual to accept a reduction without approving the accompanying supplemental request, citing the broader budget constraints affecting all departments this year.

The Office of the Independent Policing Auditor's civilian oversight board is moving toward its first public hearing on a custody death case. Kamara said outside counsel costs — budgeted at $5,000 — are likely to exceed that figure this year given the early-stage legal work involved. She said council would be notified and asked for approval before any additional spending.

Fire Department

Fire Chief Felipe Hernandez Jr. delivered the most positive budget presentation of the evening: the department is fully staffed and currently in over-hire status.

The proposed budget adds four FTEs as part of a three-year transition to a 46-hour work week, funded through the collective bargaining agreement. A shift schedule change — from third to fourth shift — is expected to reduce overtime costs. The department is also proposing fee increases for fire prevention permits (last updated in 2019) and retesting fees (last updated in 2021), projected to generate approximately $401,000.

Gaskins asked about battalion chief pay parity, a recurring issue. City Manager Parajon said a meet-and-confer process is underway and that salary adjustments are likely to come from budget savings later this fiscal year.

Juvenile Detention Center

The Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Commission is in the process of removing concrete slab beds from all housing units — the first facility in Virginia to do so, according to staff. Two of four housing units have already been retrofitted with trauma-informed furnishings. The project is expected to be complete by summer.

The facility has 70 beds, is funded for 46, and is running at roughly 90% utilization. Alexandria accounts for approximately 25% of residents; Arlington is the other primary partner jurisdiction. Today's population was 35.

Shelter Care

The most striking data point of the night came from shelter care: the city served 94 children in 2025, up from 16 in 2021 — a nearly six-fold increase in four years.

The program is currently running a $180,000 operating deficit and has a waiting list for female youth placements. A separate after-school program has 14 children on a waiting list — not because of space, but because of funding. The facility itself dates to 1988 and requires ongoing capital maintenance.

Gaskins asked for a budget memo on the cost to clear the after-school program waiting list. Greene asked about ongoing facility funding and noted the building's age.

What's next

The next budget public hearing is Saturday, March 14 at 9:30 a.m. Work Session #4, covering Livable, Green & Prospering, is Monday, March 16. Work Session #5, covering Healthy, Thriving & Equitable, is Wednesday, March 18.

FY 2027 Budget Calendar