Schools, housing, and transit dominate second budget public hearing

Alexandria City Council held its second FY 2027 budget public hearing Saturday morning at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center, 4850 Mark Center Drive, with five of six council members present. Mayor Gaskins announced at the outset that Councilwoman Jacinta E. Greene was absent due to unforeseen circumstances.

The roughly two-hour session drew speakers from across the city — but ACPS dominated, with the school board chair, the teachers union president, a parent budget committee chair, and multiple parents all appearing to press council to close the $5.6 million gap between the city manager's proposed school appropriation and the school board's request.

School Board Chair Rief makes her case directly

School Board Chair Michelle Rief appeared in person to ask council to increase the city's operating transfer to ACPS, laying out the school board's position in unusually direct terms.

Rief said ACPS identified $7.5 million in cost reductions before submitting its budget request — including a 5% cut in non-personnel spending, elimination of 13.8 positions mostly in central office, and increases to facility use fees and employee health care premium contributions. Despite those cuts, the school board is requesting a $9.8 million increase in city appropriations. The city manager proposed a $4.2 million increase, leaving a $5.6 million gap.

"One hundred percent of the requested increase will go toward wages," Rief said — not management, but teachers, counselors, social workers, instructional assistants, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers.

Rief was one of at least five speakers advocating for the full 3.5% increase, including Education Association of Alexandria President Dawn Lucas, School Board Budget Advisory Committee Chair Christina Hildebidle, and Teri Gennarelli, president of the Alexandria PTA Council.

The CBA's future costs — nobody knows

Councilman Canek Aguirre pressed Lucas directly on the multi-year cost of the collective bargaining agreement.

"The CBA — it's $12.7 million this year. How much is it going to be next year and the year after?" Aguirre asked.

"We haven't negotiated that far into the future," Lucas said.

Councilman John Taylor Chapman said he was surprised the agreement wasn't structured as a multi-year contract — the model used by all four of the city's collective bargaining units. At the March 5 joint work session, Mayor Gaskins said the city learned about the $12.7 million teacher pay deal through a press release rather than direct communication.

"As a regular employee, I'm under Fairfax County contract. Theirs is a multi-year contract. I just assumed that was going to be the case," Chapman said. He called for school board and council representatives to get in a room quickly to address the gap.

Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley said the lack of a multi-year commitment creates a structural budget problem for the city. "The fraction of the pie that is sort of up for discussion, that isn't pre-locked in, is getting smaller with each year," she said, noting that the city's other bargaining units all committed to multi-year agreements despite not knowing future budget conditions.

Mayor Gaskins said the city manager has sent a formal request to ACPS seeking additional details on the CBA's multi-year cost structure.

Chapman: why isn't anyone asking for a tax increase?

In an exchange that stood out for its candor, Chapman asked the Budget Advisory Committee chair why advocates are pushing the fund balance as a funding option but not a tax increase.

"Historically I've heard advocates come and talk about a tax increase. I just haven't heard that this year," Chapman said. "I'm kind of wondering why, because that's sustained funding every year."

Hildebidle said she raised a tax increase at last year's hearing but heard clearly that council didn't want to go there. "I don't get the sense from some folks that they want to have that conversation," she said. She added that she discussed the idea with her retired parents, now Alexandria residents — "and they said, what's it going to pay for? And when I explained it, they said, let's go."

Chapman pushed back on the fund balance idea, saying that using one-time reserves to fund recurring salary commitments creates a structural problem for future years. Council voted 6-0 on Tuesday to advertise a maximum tax rate of $1.145 — one cent above the current rate — preserving the option of a modest increase before April 29 adoption.

Hildebidle noted that the city's fund balance is currently at nearly 24% — well above the 15% minimum required to maintain the AAA bond rating — and that using $5.6 million to close the gap would reduce it by less than half a percent.

ARHA tenants: mold, mice, and a family still displaced

Several speakers raised conditions at Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority properties, delivering what amounted to a formal demand for city intervention.

Housing advocate Lorenda Pina told council that 49% of ARHA's roughly 900 tenants are delinquent or behind on rent — compared to a national average of 15 to 20% — and called it "a systemic problem, not a tenant problem." She cited a case where a tenant received two eviction notices within six hours for owning dogs — the tenant has only a cat.

Ariana Villatoro spoke on behalf of her mother Leticia, a 30-year ARHA tenant who has been displaced since October 2025 after mold was found in their home. The family has not been shown a replacement unit since October despite her brother's medical needs and ongoing deteriorating conditions — including what she described as mice no longer afraid of people. "Would you allow your own mother to live like this?" she asked council.

Speakers called on council to conduct tenant home visits, demand a third-party audit, and issue a public apology to ARHA tenants.

Other speakers

The DASH Advisory Committee asked council to prioritize sustained funding for Line 32 between West Alexandria and the Van Dorn, Eisenhower, and King Street Metro stations, and to maintain investment in Lines 103 and 104 serving the Pentagon corridor.

The Alexandria Housing Affordability Partners co-chair asked council to approve the Housing 2040 plan, begin the process of issuing at least $50 million in housing bonds in FY 2028, and to prioritize city tools — tax abatement, fee waivers, loan guarantees — for deeply affordable units at or below 60% of area median income.

Two speakers presented FuturePort, a proposed innovation and futures-oriented destination center at Potomac Yard that they said would generate tourism revenue and complement Virginia Tech's Innovation Campus. The group is in the process of incorporating as a 501(c)(3).

Vice Mayor Bagley used a public comment about a former D.C. police officer indicted on rape charges to remind residents that APD victim services — 703-683-7273 — and the Domestic Violence Hotline — 703-746-4911 — are available to anyone who believes they may have been victimized. She also directed residents to the Office of the Independent Policing Auditor if they have concerns about APD complaint handling.

What's next

Budget Director Morgan Routt told council the next opportunity for public comment is online at any time, with the next formal public hearing on April 18, which will cover the tax rate and the Add/Delete list. Budget adoption is April 29.