I support HB 1659 Local Foundation and Soil Management Fund.       •    This bill will allow our government to provided needed financial support for soil restoration in our community.      •    Unfortunately, we are experiencing slope failure in because developers had not properly corrected it during construction.      •    Our HOA does not have the funds for restoration project of this magnitude.     •    Significant financial impacts to households without financial support this bill would allow. 

I am very strongly opposed to HB1677. I've lived in Martinsville/Henry County since I married in 2004, for 21 years, and I've been a resident of Martinsville for 15 years. So much has happened to this small city and town since I have been here and it's not been good things either. It's gotten worse just I'm the past 10 years even. Political scandals, a family enterprise that basically owns most of the real estate here and has locked out all competition, doctors that are unhonest and just give options out like candy and have been busted for it and more than once, there are high incidences of drug use here, and rumors of businesses and apartments being ran my cartel. If that's not enough there has also been corruption in the county sheriff's office. And now recently in the media there is more current developments of corruption in the city of Martinsville government that could end in a $11 million lawsuit and this city don't have that kind of money. This could only lead to higher taxes etc and that's gonna be devastating to this town. On the TV last night in the media, it was brought to the public attention that the city manager is also trying to be the city clerk and is try to change the rules into he charter that states the attorney here doesn't have to be a resident here in va anymore. The charter says has to be here for atleats 5 years and all her crew new and has no idea about what's all happened here. And the man who she calls the attorney hasn't even passed his BAR. She rather change the charter rules to have her favorite people who will do what she says and push her on agenda instead of finding good qualified people. I just want good to come to this city and people to love each other and look out for each other not pushing crazy agendas. Thank you for your time.

I oppose the move to change the city charter’s rules that govern the screening of City Attorney candidates in the manner proposed, because it arbitrarily weakens the selection process by opening candidacy to far less experienced and non-representative persons. By non-representative, I mean persons who have not yet depended on the health of our community to facilitate building their lives, and are therefore not locally familiar, locally experienced, or locally invested. What is the purpose of changing the rules so that such persons would now be considered? City government appointees are there to serve the specific interests of the people and should be selected based on the likelihood of fulfilling that purpose rather than any other political or social pet-project—Pet-project here means an activity or goal pursued as a personal favorite (of the city manager, in this instance, who herself came out of nowhere, with no local experience, and who has also —through another arbitrary rule change—installed herself as the city clerk, holding two offices) rather than because it is generally accepted as necessary or important. I became aware of the suspect moves being made by the City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides through the excellent and informative presentations and city-counsel meeting appearances of Caleb Robertson, also a resident of Martinsville Va, who hosts an educational show that also engages in investigative journalism. The show is televised on local news and streamed to YouTube several times a week. I highly recommend that anyone interested in seeing what the city government is doing in our town see the show that aired on 1/30/2025 which focuses on this issue with background included. It is to be found at the following YouTube channel (here I will attempt to include the link to the specific post: https://www.youtube.com/live/2MKHOuJJYlk?si=MQoLOZSSwsSRGWbm should it not work, please visit “Johnny Robertson” YouTube channel and see the live show that streamed on 1/30/25) Thank you for your time and attention, Ian Young, 100 Lakemont Court, Martinsville Va. 24112 Phone: (310) 985-1941

The following comments are a detailed follow up to a personal call that I made earlier to Delegate Phillips office. I am VEHEMENTLY opposed to HB1677 not only in a technical sense, but what it now represents in principle. I've lived in Martinsville/Henry County since I was born, for 47 years, and I've been a resident of Martinsville for 15 years. Since high school, I've witnessed an entire generation of economic hardship due to factors at a national level beyond the citizen's control. Over the years, the effects of that hardship have been compounded locally by political scandal, a family enterprise that has consolidated real estate ownership and locked out competition, a doctor who ran a multi-state 'pill mill', high incidence of drug overdose, rumors of cartel activity, corruption in the county Sheriff's office, and now, from what I'm hearing from recent local media investigations, developing corruption within the Martinsville City Government that may conclude in an $11 million dollar lawsuit against an already cash strapped municipality. It appears from recent developments that the current City Manager is making moves to consolidate power by granting herself the ability to function in multiple capacities for what would generally be separated powers. Furthermore, a number of new personnel have been hired by the administration from outside states that appear to be cohorts from previous stints as City Manager in other localities, and now, with the introduction of HB1677, an attempt to alter the City charter to allow an 'Esquire' to give legal advice to the city without a Virginia bar admission. All this IN ADDITION to pushing a DEI agenda by partnering with local religious sects in contradiction article I, section 16 of the constitution of Virginia: "And the General Assembly shall not prescribe any religious test whatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or advantages on any sect or denomination," I write this to you as a power transformer has just exploded on our street, cutting our power for the first of what will most likely be many times this year due to the dilapidated infrastructure that the City of Martinsville can't seem to muster the capital to fix. Not to mention the water main that has broken again for at least the 5th time during my residency here. Meanwhile, our city manager is enriching herself with a nearly $200,000 a year salary, pushing divisive agendas and leading the city into a legal dispute that may finally push our municipality to bankruptcy or even higher taxes.

I do not support this bill.

I wish to contest HB1677. In the same way that the Martinsville Charter rules City Councilmen must be residents of the city, I would like for our City Attorney to have some familiarity with laws and practices of the state of Virginia (having practiced law in VA for at least five years immediately before appointment). In regard to the qualifications of the City Attorney I would like for the words "therein" and "immediately" to remain in the charter as currently stated. Ensuring our local government receives legal council from someone relatively familiar (at least five years of experience) with laws and practices of the state of Virginia.

I am available for comments if needed. Thank you.

Job applicants for positions at financial institutions are strenuously vetted. They are subjected to thorough background checks to ensure exceptional integrity. They must possess strong accounting skills and years of experience. An advanced degree in accounting is generally a minimum requirement. These requirements seem reasonable and absolutely necessary because these individuals are responsible for the financial assets of the institution’s customers! There should be similar requirements for the Treasurer of the City of Hopewell, but that is not the case. The officer’s lack of education and experience has placed the City’s assets at risk, requiring the reallocation of duties and responsibilities to the Finance Department, as allowed by the Hopewell City Charter. The proposed charter change is an attempt to codify these changes for the future. I therefore support HB 2283. Rita Joyner, Vice Mayor, City of Hopewell

I strongly support Delegate Oates with this bill. As an elected official myself for the Town of Front Royal, I can say that the people here want smart growth. This bill will help us mitigate the road infrastructure costs that we as municipalities are often uncannily led to believe to be less impactful than they actually are.

Thank you for your consideration of the changes for HB2683 regarding road impact fees. Front Royal, which is approximately 60 miles west of Washington D.C. has been a prime location for individuals desiring to relocate -- particularly from Northern Virginia. As a Town Council member, I have experienced the struggle of trying to keep taxes low/affordable for our residents while simultaneously ensuring a stable infrastructure that can support growth demand. Being able to address road impact fees with prospective developers would be an important relief for communities like ours -- which fall just below the current threshold for eligibility. While many argue that bringing in more people to a community will spark economic development, it is also true that more people straining an insufficient infrastructure will ultimately bring down the quality of life for all residents, eventually deter people moving here, and as a result limit economic development. The simple changes offered through this bill will have great impact beyond our community. And this bill would help prod developers to offer better investments to our community -- many of the proffers we have seen have been less than optimal with regard to helping advance our infrastructure. Thank you again.

As the Mayor for the Town of Front Royal, I want to express my support for House Bill 2683. Front Royal’s population has had a consistent growth rate of 2% for many years. Most recently, our town is seeing that growth rate rapidly increase. Housing inventory shortages is a major concern in our area much like many towns and cities in Virginia. While we would like to be able to entertain opportunities to increase our housing inventory, the infrastructure needs that come along with housing developments is met with disapproval by our citizens, especially the impact on our roads. For example, in 2023, we had a proposed housing development in what was our designated Urban Development Area. This proposed development would have brought another 200+ homes to our town. Unfortunately, we were not able to approve the development due to the safety concerns of the road infrastructure in the area. Another 200 homes on an already busy road that had only one way in and one way out was not feasible. Residents nearby had been dealing with delays from the railroad blocking their only way in and out of their road for many years. Their concern was also shared by our first responders who argued that adding additional homes in an area that is already inaccessible at times would be unsafe. While we have attempted to work with the federal government to gain emergency access to 66 in the case of the railroad blocking access to these homes, we have been unsuccessful. What would have made the development more appealing to our residents would be the connector road that has been on our CIP list for many years. However, at the cost of millions of dollars, it would be unfair to burden only our taxpayers with the expense of this connector road when the developers would benefit greatly. The 2023 proposed development had developers who wanted to work with us to get the connector road built, but the other owners of nearby land which would eventually be developed, were not cooperative. This resulted in no development being approved and no additional homes added to our housing inventory. If House Bill 2683 were to be successful, a Town such as our size, would have the opportunity to work with developers on road impact fees to help share the burden with residents and other developers. We are a small town nestled in the Shenandoah Valley that sits an hour West of Washington, D.C. We see the growth that has already happened and anticipate this is just the beginning. A quick google search shows Front Royal’s median household income is $62,735 compared to Virginia’s at $87,249. Our citizens cannot afford to pay for the road infrastructure that will be necessary to meet the growing demands in our community. I see HB 2683 as a way to allow a Town of Front Royal’s size the ability and opportunity if we so choose, to partner with developers to address some of the road impacts brought about by development. I ask you to consider supporting this bill that directly impacts the small towns in Virginia.

Currently the Town of Front Royal is just below the threshold to have the ability to adopt a road impact fee ordinance. The ability to assess road impact fees would be a huge benefit for the Town of Front Royal to help offset potential tax increases for existing taxpayers, would allow associated expenses to be directed to developers who are creating the need for road improvements, and reduce the amount of funding the Town has repeatedly requested from VDOT programs such as revenue sharing. The Town of Front Royal has several existing significant road projects that are in need of funding; these projects would provide much needed highway safety improvements, access to areas for economic development, and greatly improve traffic flows. The Town of Front Royal has attempted to obtain various forms of funding from VDOT for one particular project in a major growth area; at least 4 times, including input from two different engineering firms, VDOT officials, input from Town staff & residents. Although VDOT recognizes the need, the scoring for projects in other localities has been higher and the Town of Front Royal has not received VDOT funding for the project. Assessing road impact fees would not only help the Town of Front Royal, but would also allow VDOT to divert funds to other projects.