Blog posts are the personal views of Letty Hardi and not official statements or records on behalf of the Falls Church City Council

Dear Friends,

I hope everyone fared ok after this week’s wet weather and can prepare for the coming heat wave. Remember to check on neighbors and note the Community Center has re-opened after the geothermal HVAC upgrade, which is the city’s designated cooling center. A fun fact that I just learned this week: we have 2 official USGS rain gauges and 2 stream gauges in the city – you can see the live data online. It showed last Friday night’s rain as 2 inches per hour, which is considered intense and resulted in localized flooding.

It’s been a busy week with openings, events, and civic action across the city. Read on for a recap of what you may have missed – including important annual reports on transportation and economic development, our accessibility survey underway, and the final votes we took on City Council salaries.

While we’re heading into a mini 2 week recess, there is plenty going on in the meantime. You can catch me at my office hours next Monday at 12 pm at Mr Brown’s Park or more of us at Ask the Council office hours on Wednesday, July 2 at 9 am at City Hall. We also have a Budget and Finance committee meeting next Thursday morning where we’ll get the latest on how our local economy is performing. When we resume our meetings on July 7, we’ll get an update on the Greening of Lincoln project, which I know is of high interest for that neighborhood. Also Abigail Spanberger will be in Falls Church next Friday – this is not a fundraiser and it’s open to the public if you’d like the opportunity to meet her.

Stay cool –
Letty

What Happened This Week:

(1) Civic Action Across the City!

A big thanks to our Public Works, Public Safety, and Office of Emergency Management teams for supporting the No Kings Rallies held on E. Broad St in the morning and N. and S. Washington in the afternoon last Saturday. It’s important the city can support safe and peaceful protests. Likewise, kudos to the volunteers who painted the newest crosswalk public art project at the Eden Center and city staff for the road closures and prep work that made it possible!

And yesterday, we commemorated Juneteenth at the Tinner Hill Historic Park to celebrate freedom, community, and the ongoing fight for justice.

(2) Highlights from City Council

Annual Reports – We heard annual reports from two of our most active boards – CACT (Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation) and EDA (Economic Development Authority). Their annual reports give you a good flavor of the kind of work our boards and commission take on and priorities they represent from the community. This is a good time to make a plug to consider applying for vacancies on other boards as a low lift way to get involved with your local government. If you have a design eye or architecture experience, we especially need people on the AAB (Architectural Advisory Board) or if you’re interested in real estate tax appeals, the BOE (Board of Equalization) also has openings.

Council Salaries – We voted 5-1 to raise salaries of City Council Members and Mayor from $11,000 to $16,000 and for the Mayor from $11,500 to $17,000 effective July 1, 2026. The General Assembly sets salary caps based on population size of the jurisdiction and they raised the caps to $21,000/$22,000. This will still be subject to appropriation in the next budget (which we’ll start next spring). We also voted to re-affirm Council Members’ eligibility to receive benefits as part time term employees – most notably health insurance.

Letty’s Thoughts: I wrote about this back in Sept 2022 and continue to believe it’s important that we have a City Council that is more reflective of the community it serves. While the reality is that no one can live independently on a salary of $17K, or even $22K, in Northern Virginia, compensation and healthcare benefits do lower the financial barriers that might prevent community members from all income levels consider running for office and not just the ones with flexibility in their professional or private lives. (I personally believe that healthcare should be a universal right, but that is a post for another day!)

Solid Waste Task Force & Accessibility Survey – if you don’t get the Falls Church Focus (the city’s weekly e-newsletter) – you should subscribe! Two important things I’ll pull out from this week’s Focus:

The Solid Waste Task Force has started meeting last week to work on recommendations on more equitable way of paying for curbside trash and recycling service and possibly city wide composting. There are 3 more meetings (all open to the public) scheduled this summer before recommendations are delivered to the City Council in August – more details here.

A community-wide accessibility survey is underway to identify areas for improvement across properties and public spaces. This questionnaire invites residents to share feedback on accessibility concerns—whether physical, visual, auditory, or cognitive—to ensure equal access to information, opportunities, and experiences for all.

(3) Live Local

We toured the apartments (50% leased) and condos (30% sold) at West Falls at the beginning of this week. More businesses are continuing to open in addition to the green space (just to name a few: Seoulspice and Mason’s Lobster Roll are open, Honoo Ramen Bar is in soft opening mode, and the heatwave means it will be a perfect time to try Ice Cream Jubilee). Paragon Theaters is also in soft opening with $8 movie tickets until the end of the month. It’s a good weekend to live local and support our new small businesses – and if you need a reminder of all that we offer, our Visit Falls Church website has a handy listing of our restaurants.

I also had the opportunity to attend the Strong Towns conference last week in Providence, RI and then spoke at an APAICS (Asian Pacific American Institute on Congressional Studies) panel last week at Amazon HQ2 …so it’s been busy!

What’s Coming Up:

Wednesday, July 2 – Ask the Council Office Hours (9 am, City Hall)

Monday, July 7 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, July 14 – City Council Meeting*

Monday, August 4 – City Council Work Session*

Wednesday, August 6 – Ask the Council Office Hours (9 am, City Hall)

Monday, August 11 – City Council Meeting*

*Mondays (except 5th Mondays and holidays) at 7:30 pm. You can access the agenda and livestream here, including recordings of past meetings

Letty’s Office Hours:

Monday, June 23 – 12 pm (Mr Brown’s Park)