To further its environmental goals, Fairfax County’s to-do list should include building an electric vehicle charging network, addressing “critical” staff shortages, and addressing development pressure, the Environmental Quality Advisory Council (EQAC) says in a new report.
An employee compensation policy update to attract and retain workers in departments such as wastewater and solid waste was the top recommendation in the 2023 Annual Report on the Environment (ARE), EQAC Chair Larry Zaragoza told the Board of Supervisors during its environmental committee meeting on Tuesday (Feb. 29).
“If you had a problem in a facility or in operations that caused some other issues, the consequences could require a lot of corrective action, or they could be publicly undesirable,” he said.
Although it has seen some progress, Zaragoza said the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES), in particular, is seeing higher vacancy rates of 16 to 22%. In some “major functions,” rates have climbed as high as 32%, according to the presentation.
Zaragoza acknowledged that the recommendation to develop a network of charging stations for electric vehicles would be challenging to implement, but necessary.
“This seems to be an issue that is challenging the nation with respect to the conversion to EVs,” Zaragoza said. “People have a fear that they won’t have options for charging their vehicles.”
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said that, while it’s true more EV charging stations are needed, the biggest issue is maintenance, speculating that, on a typical day, about 50% of chargers don’t seem to work.
He advised the council to look into ways to address the maintenance issues, including potential legislative measures.
“The EV charging people are racing to get as much federal money as they can to install these and then don’t have anybody to come back and repair them,” McKay said. “And to me, that’s a huge threat to EV utilization because [when] you see them on a map, you expect them to be working.”
Reiterating a recommendation made last year, the report calls for the county to provide more funding for its stormwater program through either one of two options:
- An increase in the Stormwater Service District tax in 2024 by at least one-quarter penny, from 3.25 cents to 3.5 cents per $100 of assessed real estate value
- A change in the base property tax rate
Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez asked the council to keep equity and low-income residents in mind when considering these adjustments.
“I would hope that there will be something in place to ensure that the cost increases are equitable and do not disproportionately affect low-income residents,” Jimenez said.
The report also highlights a need to address pressure from development while preserving trees and minimizing ecological degradation.
“As you have development, you often have the loss of trees, you often have loss of habitat, and to the extent that it’s possible, it’s good to try to preserve as much as you can in this process,” Zaragoza said.
McKay agreed with the need to minimize environmental damage but said the council should also carefully consider how that priority intersects with the “oldest parts of the county that are in desperate need of revitalization.”
According to the report, proposed topics that the EQAC will review this year include the impacts of data centers, flood risks, and water security.
County staff have been developing guidelines for regulating noise, water pollution, power usage and other issues raised by data centers. In a new ARE recommendation, EQAC suggests that the county collect energy consumption data on its current and planned data centers, including the extent to which they utilize green energy.
The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department is working on ways to improve service by reorganizing units and tackling recruitment and staffing challenges.
The changes were discussed at a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ safety and security committee meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 28).
The FCFRD is focused on using data to inform changes to operations, guiding how and when medics are converted to ambulances and where units are located, department officials told the committee.
According to a presentation delivered by Fairfax County Fire Chief John Butler and Operations Chief Dan Shaw, the department reorganized and reassessed its emergency medical services delivery between 2021 and 2022.
In January 2022, eight advanced life support units were converted to basic life support units. The following month, four more advanced life support units were converted.
The FCFRD has also studied ways to improve its EMS dispatch protocol and overall service delivery and deployment. In September, for example, the department implemented a new emergency medical protocol to ensure needs are properly understood as resources are dispatched to handle emergencies.
In January, the department plans to convert another eight advance life support units to basic life support. A paramedic will remain at each fire station.
The department also plans to introduce a new EMS specialist position that can offer a higher skill set and bring more advanced intervention and equipment to the incident. Shaw said the position is a big moment for the fire department.
“This allows the opportunity to employ a paramedic and deliver a higher level of service,” Shaw said.
Still, a national shortage of paramedics is a challenge due to a notable decrease in people pursuing public safety professions overall, officials said. To maintain its minimum staffing of 363 personnel, the FCFRD relies heavily on mandatory overtime.
The department has around 100 vacancies, according to FCFRD spokesperson Ashley Hildebrandt.
“While we are not immune to the recruitment challenges being experienced nationwide throughout the fire service, our department has worked, and continues to work, diligently to increase recruitment efforts to ensure the residents of Fairfax County continue to receive the high quality services the department is known for,” Hildebrandt said.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity said he continues to be concerned by the drop in the number of paramedics.
“Fairfax County needs to do better than the national trend and the national average,” he said.
The fire and rescue department is currently in the midst of analyzing its staffing model and hours of overtime recorded by personnel.
At the meeting, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay countered Herrity’s assertion that the county needs to step up its efforts to address staffing challenges by stressing that the county and its public safety agencies are investing time and resources to tackle the issue.
“It is disgraceful to the people who are killing themselves recruiting people,” McKay said, adding that he’s “tired of this nonsense.”
McKay said repeating incorrect statistics about the number of vacancies — particularly in the police department — works against the county’s goal of recruiting more people and establishing the progress that has been made.
After reporting 206 vacancies in early April, the Fairfax County Police Department welcomed over 100 new trainees across two academy classes this year. A cohort of 56 recruits this spring was trumpeted as the FCPD Academy’s largest class in almost 10 years, and it was followed in the summer by an even bigger session with 59 people.
According to McKay, the FCPD’s vacancy rate is now closer to 127 positions.
The county’s Department of Public Safety Communications, which operates the 911 center, has also chipped away at its vacancies to the point where the department anticipated reducing required overtime this fall.
All Fairfax County Public Schools employees will get a bump in their paychecks, starting next year, after the school board unanimously approved 2% raises last week.
The additional pay was made possible by the budget that the Virginia General Assembly belatedly adopted in early September, which provided money to raise teacher salaries across the state. But school board members and FCPS workers argue that overall state funding for education falls far short of what they need.
“While the 2% raise is a start, it is clearly insufficient in ensuring our professionals are compensated at their full value, nor does it bridge the gap enough for family liaisons, drivers, [instructional assistants] and others to earn a wage that allows them to reside in Fairfax County,” Mason District Representative Ricardy Anderson, chair of the school board’s budget committee, said before the vote on Thursday (Oct. 26).
Effective Jan. 1, the 2% raise will ensure FCPS can “retain teachers at the status quo, essentially,” keeping pace with other school districts in the state, Mount Vernon District Representative Karen Corbett-Sanders said. Loudoun, Arlington, Prince William and Alexandria schools have also approved the increase, FCPS staff told the board.
State formula underestimates school staffing costs
According to the meeting agenda, FCPS is getting a $19.7 million increase in state revenue from the revised fiscal year 2024 budget. However, only $5.3 million of that was designated for the 2% raises, with the remainder intended as “reimbursement” for support staff positions, Anderson explained at the school board meeting.
With the raises costing a total of $30.5 million, FCPS is taking advantage of “flexibility allowed with” the support staff funding to allocate that $14.4 million to the compensation supplement, Anderson said. The remaining gap will be filled by $10.8 million from the school system’s staffing reserve, which is set aside in case more positions are needed than anticipated in each year’s budget.
The reserve will still have enough money for about 99 staff positions, FCPS Chief Financial Officer Leigh Burden told the board, noting that new positions aren’t often added after October “because of the potential disruption of adding teacher positions once the school year has started.”
In other words, the “burden” of funding the school system and its employees “rests largely on local funds,” Anderson said.
The standards of quality (SOQ) formula that Virginia uses to calculate the number of positions each school division needs and how much they will cost “substantially” underestimates actual school needs, according to a report released in July by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), which evaluates programs and provides state agency oversight for the General Assembly.
The report found that Virginia provides 14% less funding per student than the national average, trailing Maryland by 18% and West Virginia by a whopping 25%.
“The points made in the study about Virginia being one of the lowest paid states for teachers in the United States is an abysmal statistic to behold,” Tamara Derenak Kaufax, who represents Franconia District on the school board, said. “…We cannot continue to be last in the nation in this, with the pay for our teachers in particular, so it is something that we will continue to fight for.” Read More
The Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board will have more money for mental health services, thanks to recent state budget amendments.
The CSB provides services related to mental health, substance use and developmental disabilities. Additional funding could include $2.5 million to cover both staff pay increases and the state’s program to standardize behavioral health community services (STEP-VA).
“We’re kind of getting geared up for all of these great new resources coming, but…me and my staff will be quite busy over the next half year to a year with making sure we get all of these things stood up,” Fairfax-Falls Church CSB Executive Director Daryl Washington told the Board of Supervisors health and human services committee on Oct. 17.
Northern Virginia is likely to receive about 20% of the $78 million allocated for regional initiatives, Washington said.
Washington also told the committee there are five staff vacancies in the CSB’s youth outpatient unit, down from more than three times that at the height of the pandemic. Still, those vacancies make it challenging for the board to meet its goal timeline in assigning youth to treatment, he said.
The CSB would ideally make assignments within 14 calendar days or 10 business days of a youth’s initial assessment. After that point, statistics have shown that people are less likely show up to an ongoing therapy program, Washington said.
“Those five vacancies represent around 125 youth being served at any one point in time,” Washington said. “I really think, if we were fully staffed with those five, that we would be hitting our goal based upon the additional youth that we’d be able to serve.”
The CSB is also looking for an appropriate location to build a regional program that would be licensed as a medically-managed detox center, a youth crisis stabilization center, a youth substance abuse treatment center and a type of youth group home aftercare center, Washington said.
This facility could provide a long-term alternative to Virginia’s one youth state hospital, according to Washington.
“Quite frankly, I don’t know if the youth state hospital is the best place for folks to receive care at right now anyway,” he said. “We really try to focus on getting our youth at some of our local private hospitals whenever we can. I think that’s going to be a multi-year issue that’s not going to go away and that finding some type of either regional or local solution that’s going to work for our kids is probably the better long-term solution for us to go with.”
The closure of several state psychiatric hospitals in 2021 has also created a widespread shortage of beds for adults in crisis. In its most recent annual report, the Fairfax-Falls Church CSB said it had 1,353 individuals waiting in emergency rooms for as long as six days due to a lack of psychiatric inpatient beds.
The 2022 Fairfax County Youth Survey, which was released last month, found declines from 2021 in the percentages of 8th, 10th and 12th grade students who reported stress, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, though Washington said there’s still work to be done. Read More
Fairfax County’s libraries are set to expand their hours later this month after going a year with reduced hours due to staffing shortages.
Last week, the Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) system announced it will move back to “normal operating hours” at all 23 branches starting Aug. 28.
That means all libraries will open at 10 a.m. with the eight regional branches staying open until 9 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday and until 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. The 15 community branches will be open until 9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The community branches will remain closed on Sundays.
Until Aug. 28, the branches will continue operating at the reduced hours put in place a year ago due to staffing shortages.
An additional $6 million dollars was approved as part of this year’s county budget to go towards library personnel services, which helped the library hire the staff needed to go back to regular operating hours.
“While recruitment remains challenging, the library has been fortunate to have retained a pool of amazing staff and hired some great new people enabling us to return to regular hours,” Deputy Library Director Kevin Osborne told FFXnow in an email. “We have active recruitments for several positions and are optimistic that we will be able to hire more great staff for our return to regular hours.”
Osborne said FCPL is continuing to staff up and is “confident” in returning to regular hours. It was only April when the vacancy rate was between 18% and 20%, but that rate appears to have dropped in recent months due to the influx of cash.
The budget covers 390 positions, but Osborne did not share the exact number of open positions or the current staffing vacancy rate, noting that many positions are “in various phases of the hiring process.”
After returning to full in-person services in June 2021, FCPL struggled to maintain expanded and consistent hours — a goal even before the pandemic. Budget cuts had reduced the system’s operating capacity after the 2008 recession.
But, according to Osborne, several open positions are on the way to being filled, allowing FCPL to return to normal operating hours and maintain them for the first time in potentially years.
“FCPL would like to thank the people of Fairfax County for their patience and understanding as it navigated the effects of the pandemic and staffing difficulties,” reads the announcement. “FCPL is excited to once again be able to offer everyone a greater opportunity to visit its branches and enjoy its array of services.”
Handling 911 calls has never been a regular 9-to-5 job, but a national staffing shortage has increased the hours and pressure felt by call takers and dispatchers across the country.
Fairfax County’s Department of Public Safety Communications wasn’t spared from the workforce challenges that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping from close to 180 staffers before 2020 to about 160 people right now.
The gap is sizable enough that workers are required to take about two overtime shifts every four months, but it’s not as drastic as the vacancy levels reported at other sites, even though the DPSC is the biggest 911 center in Virginia and one of the largest in the U.S., Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) Officer Paul Ballerini says.
For instance, Richmond’s 911 agency, the state’s second largest center, reported earlier this year that it was 30 operators short, while D.C. had 39 call taker and dispatcher vacancies.
“Two additional mandatory shifts per person for a third of the year is not bad, especially hearing [about] other centers, reading online how some other similar-sized agencies are just doing tons of overtime,” Ballerini told FFXnow.
Initially, the pandemic didn’t have much of an impact on the 911 center. With people generally staying home and minimizing interactions with others, the volume of calls declined, according to Ballerini.
However, after a while, DPSC started seeing some of the same turnover that has hit other professions, from the police to trash collectors and restaurants.
“Like most other professions, people just started jumping jobs,” Ballerini said. “Not in a bad way, just people spent more time on themselves and learned about themselves and moved to other professions. So, we were hit the same as everybody else…so we started ramping up hiring and training.”
About 3,952 911 workers across 774 centers in the U.S. left the profession in 2022, often citing the stress of the job and options for better hours, pay and opportunities as their reasons for leaving, according to a study released earlier this year by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch and National Association of State 911 Administrators.
While 27% saw no change in staffing levels over the past four years, nearly one-third of the study’s respondents reported vacancy rates of 30% or higher, including 13 that said at least 70% of their positions were unfilled.
Ballerini says Fairfax County’s current 911 staffing levels are slightly above its minimum standard after hitting maximum levels before the pandemic.
Every 12-hour shift must have at least four police dispatchers and four fire dispatchers on each of its four squads, which manage two district stations each. There are also ideally 20 call takers per day, though there can be as few as 13 people on the phones depending on the workload.
“Some people get through parts of training and realize it’s not for them and end up dropping out, but we work hard to try to stay consistent levels, not just for the public, but for morale inside the center,” Ballerini said. “I feel we’ve been pretty decent about doing that.” Read More
One of Vienna’s police officers recently got some kudos for giving the department a major staffing boost at a time when law enforcement is struggling with recruitment regionally and nationally.
Sgt. James Sheeran was named the Vienna Police Department’s “Employee of the Year” by the Rotary Club of Vienna, which presented its 2023 Rotarian M. Jane Seeman “Service Above Self” award to the sergeant at a banquet on April 19.
Bestowed annually to an officer who displays “motivation, commitment, and service to the community,” the award went to Sheeran this year after he hired 10 officers in two years — the equivalent of nearly a quarter of the VPD’s 41 sworn officer positions.
The department also employs 11 civilian staff members.
“Sgt. Sheeran’s hiring accomplishment is a feat that has not been achieved in the recent history of our police department,” the police department said in a press release on Friday (May 5).
According to the release, Sheeran was “managed to screen hundreds of applicants” during his two years working in the Criminal Investigations Section:
Sgt. Sheeran was assigned to the Vienna Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Section (CIS) for approximately 24 months. His duties included internal investigations, personnel hiring and investigator supervision. Sgt. Sheeran is described by his section commander as an exemplary employee. Always willing to lend a hand and never turns down a new assignment. Sgt. Sheeran approaches all his duties with enthusiasm, dedication, and professionalism.
The VPD now has just one vacancy, even though it has encountered the same hurdles with recruitment as other police departments, possibly “even more because we are a smaller police department,” Public Information Officer Juan Vasquez told FFXnow.
“Recruiting and hiring new officers is an extremely difficult and challenging task,” the department said. “The Vienna Police Department is located in the heart of a very large metropolitan area with numerous agencies actively and aggressively competing for law enforcement officers.”
Police departments actually reported an uptick in hiring during 2022 compared to 2019-2021, but those gains have been offset by increased retirements and resignations, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) found in a survey released April 1.
Among the agencies competing with Vienna is the Fairfax County Police Department, which has been in a “personnel emergency” since last summer. The FCPD welcomed 56 recruits to its academy last month — its largest class in over a decade — but as of early April, there were 206 vacant positions.
In a push to improve recruitment and retention, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is set to adopt a budget tomorrow (Tuesday) that will boost pay for police officers by an average of 12.8%.
The Town of Vienna’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, gives an additional $400,960 to the police. Though there aren’t any significant changes to compensation, anticipated initiatives include enhanced “recruiting efforts using social media.”
The town council will adopt the budget on May 15.
The Town of Vienna will hold its big Fourth of July celebration two days early this year, the second in a row that has required a scheduling change.
The festivities at Yeonas Park (1319 Ross Drive SW) had to be moved up to Sunday, July 2, due to continued staffing shortages in the fireworks industry, the town announced on Monday (May 1).
“We are disappointed that we were again unable to secure a fireworks company for the traditional 4th of July event this year,” Vienna Parks and Recreation Director Leslie Herman said. “While July 2 is not our preferred date, we are excited to contract with Garden State Fireworks to provide the fireworks display for the Town’s Independence Day Celebration.”
Garden State Fireworks was secured for July 4 by the National Park Service to provide its annual pyrotechnic display at the National Mall in D.C., according to Herman.
Held on July 1, 2022, Vienna’s Fourth of July celebration wasn’t the only one moved outside of the official holiday last year, as staff limitations also affected events in Reston, McLean and Fairfax City. The McLean Community Center’s July 2 display ultimately got washed out by rain.
Though it’s taking place a little early again, Vienna’s celebration will feature all of the usual attractions, including live music, kids’ entertainment, and games starting at 4 p.m. Food and drinks will be available from food trucks and a concession stand run by Vienna Little League.
The fireworks will begin at 9:30 p.m. and last 20 minutes, launching from adjacent Southside Park.
More information about what’s permitted at the event, parking and street closures can be found on the town’s website.
Fairfax County is reducing the hours for some waste collection services at the I-66 Transfer Station (4618 West Ox Road) and I-95 Landfill Complex (9850 Furnace Road).
Beginning May 1, the facilities will reduce hours for dropping off household hazardous waste (HHW) and electronics waste. The changes are ushered in by staffing shortages and are intended to maintain a “consistent quality service,” according to the county.
Currently, four of the seven total positions for environmental technology are vacant — positions that are hard to fill internally and externally, says Sharon North, a spokesperson for the county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES).
“They require specific training and knowledge to work with such materials, per federal and state regulation,” North told FFXnow. “The training is focused on packaging, labeling, and marking shipping containers and drums, as well as basic knowledge of chemical, environmental and health hazards, plus hazardous waste emergency response methods, procedures and regulations.”
Private contractors that the county typically relies on to supply field chemists and other staff have also been hit by similar labor problems.
“These challenges are not unlike what we are seeing throughout our DPWES operations with regard to frontline field personnel,” North said. “The most challenging positions are drivers, operators, technicians, maintenance and trades personnel, safety specialists and general labor.”
A breakdown of the new hours is below:
*The new I-66 HHW drop-off hours will be:
Monday and Friday: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday: noon to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
*There are no HHW drop-offs hours on Wednesday.*The new I-95 HHW drop-off hours will be:
Wednesday: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.*There are no HHW drop-offs hours on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday or Sunday.
*The new I-66 electronics waste drop-off hours will be:
Monday: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday: noon to 5 p.m. (half day)Thursday: noon to 5 p.m. (half day)
Friday: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.*There are no electronics drop-off hours on Wednesday.
*The new I-95 electronics drop-off hours will be:
Wednesday: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.*There are no electronics drop-off hours on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday or Sunday
With winter on the horizon, Fairfax County is still racing to suck up the last leafy vestiges of autumn.
Specifically, the county’s crews have yet to pick up leaves in McLean and Idylwood, as a combination of staffing shortages, equipment issues and an early leaf fall have delayed collections, the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services acknowledged yesterday.
The county will deploy multiple trucks and has hired an additional contractor to collect leaves in both areas on Monday (Dec. 19), a deviation from its typical approach of serving each of its nine collection areas separately.
“By dividing resources, it will take additional time to complete each area,” DPWES said. “Service in both remaining areas will begin concurrently. Vacuum collection staff have been working 10-hour shifts and most Saturdays and will continue to do so.”
About 25,000 residents receive leaf collection services from the county, all of them concentrated on the east side, especially the Mason District. Pickups have been completed in areas three through nine.
Public works services nationwide have been affected by a depletion of truck drivers and other essential employees. Fairfax County had to make some tweaks to its yard waste collections last fall due to a shortage of haulers, and trash pickups continue to be a struggle.
DPWES says it doesn’t have “a mechanism in place” allowing residents to get their leaf collection taxes refunded, but they can opt out of county services by petitioning the Board of Supervisors to “de-create” their vacuum leaf district.
According to the county website, the petition process to create or expand sanitary districts reopened on Dec. 1, but with DPWES apparently at full staff and equipment capacity, the department plans to use private contractors for any additional service areas.
