City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: DECEMBER 4, 2019
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Consideration of Proposed City Legislative Package for the 2020 Virginia General Assembly Session.
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ISSUE: Adoption of the proposed City Legislative Package for the 2020 General Assembly Session.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council:
1. Adopt the City of Alexandria 2020 General Assembly Legislative Package, as recommended by Council’s Legislative Subcommittee and members of City Council (Attachment 1);
2. Consider the inclusion of a Priority Item re: Drivers Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants (Attachment 3); and
3. Consider the inclusion of a new Priority section re: Climate Change (Attachment 4).
BACKGROUND: Each year, the City of Alexandria produces its General Assembly Legislative Package. The goal of the package is to organize, prioritize, and communicate the City’s legislative and budget priorities to the community, stakeholders, and legislators. In addition, because Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, localities only have the authority expressly granted to them by the legislature by state statute or in their charter. Localities in Virginia, including Alexandria, therefore often request legislation to grant them enabling authority for specific powers they do not already have, which are included in the Legislative Package.
The requests in the draft Legislative Package generally originate from the City Council, City staff, and boards and commissions, with additional input coming from the public through the public hearing process. For the past several months, staff has worked with Council members, City departments, and boards and commissions to develop the proposals included in the City’s 2020 Legislative Package.
On October 15, 2019, City Council’s Legislative Subcommittee met with subject matter experts on City staff to discuss the proposals submitted for consideration for inclusion in the 2020 Legislative Package. Council reviewed the draft package on November 12, 2019 and accepted input from the community and other outside stakeholders at the November 16, 2019 public hearing. Finally, a Work Session was held with the City’s Legislative Delegation on November 27 where we received input on their priorities for the 2020 session, the post-election makeup of the General Assembly, and their feedback on the Legislative Package.
DISCUSSION: The proposed 2020 Legislative Package has the proposals organized into two sections - Legislative Principles and Legislative Priorities.
The section of Legislative Principles is structured around the City’s Strategic Plan and creates a clear nexus between the City’s goals and the legislative and funding measures necessary for us to achieve these goals. The Legislative Principles are, generally, broadly crafted and focus on comprehensive legislative strategies rather than specific legislative tactics. Per Council’s request at the November 12, 2019 meeting, an annotated version of the Legislative Principles - including references to specific proposals/requests submitted by staff, board and commissions, and Council covered by the principles - is attached (Attachment 2) for your review.
The Legislative Priorities are, generally, specific revenue and legislative proposals that the City has identified as the issues of greatest impact to the City. These are the issues the City intends to continue expending significant political capital on and the issues that we intend to ask our General Assembly delegation to engage in on behalf of the City.
Note that after direction from Council, public testimony and input from the City’s legislative delegation, two additional items are included here for your consideration.
• A new priority item under “Access, Equity and Equality” in support of drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants (Attachment 3)
• A new section of priority items on “Climate Change” in support of four specific priorities in the area of climate change and achieving our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030 (Attachment 4)
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Proposed City Legislative Package for the 2020 Virginia General Assembly Session
2. Annotated Version of the City’s Legislative Principles
3. New Item re: Drivers Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants
4. New Priority Section/Items re: Climate Change
STAFF:
Laura Triggs, Deputy City Manager
Sarah Taylor, Legislative Director