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,

Happy Halloween, Falls Church – I hope all the trick or treaters have a safe and fun evening. This week’s post will be short and sweet, and a little spooky in light of the federal government shutdown, job transitions, insurance premiums rising, and food insecurity with SNAP benefits lapsing tomorrow. I learned that for every 1 person helped at a food bank, 8 people are helped via SNAP – so extra food donations are helpful as are all the local restaurants stepping up, but that won’t be sufficient. I’ve been fielding many questions so I’ll share resources to pass along or how to help.

In hard times, we can still use our voice and our vote – Election Day is next Tuesday (Saturday is the last day of in person early voting). Best of luck to all the candidates and please thank them for bravely stepping up and contributing to important civic dialogue.

Read on for:

• City Council’s budget amendment on deploying the “surplus” you may have read about
• Food insecurity resources and how you can help
• Weekend To Do’s: get the eFocus, organic bin deadline this weekend, leaf season
• PSA re “e-bikes”

We resume our meetings on November 10 after the election, so I’ll be back in your inboxes in 2 weeks. I’m also sharing our final 2025 meeting schedule and my office hours below.

Take care,
Letty

What Happened This Week:

(1) FY25 Budget Amendment

Among the many votes we took this week (such as agreements for fire and judicial services we share with Arlington), the most important one was the first of two votes on the FY25 budget amendment. We typically have a budget amendment this time of year to close out the fiscal year that ends in June. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, we are closing the year with a $2.8M “surplus” but not a true surplus in that it’s mostly due to higher revenues from miscellaneous, one time items like investment returns and not due to tax revenues exceeding our forecasts.

As such, staff recommendations and our subsequent vote signals a prudent mindset to put the majority of the surplus in various reserves ($274K in permit fee reserves, $870K in our unassigned fund balance aka rainy day fund, and $835K in our capital reserves) with $626K in new appropriations for one time, small needs. You can see the specifics on page 2 of the staff report. Highlights include: new solid waste program with organics carts, additional emergency financial assistance, demolition for the open space properties we acquired at Sherrow and Cameron, and remediating ADA issues in our buildings and parks.

Budget items require two votes so we would welcome your public comment ahead of our second vote on November 10.

(2) Food insecurity resources and how you can help

With the federal government shutdown resulting in furloughed workers and now SNAP benefits lapsing tomorrow – I know anxiety is high and food and other financial needs are increasing. I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about what are the resources and how to help. This city webpage and this FCCPS webpage have a lot of good content. More targeted communication is also going out to the communities in need, but please help spread the word.

A few links based on the FAQs I’m receiving:

• Virginia is standing up an emergency food assistance payment system called VENA while SNAP benefits lapse, although the earliest payments will be loaded onto existing EBT cards is on November 3, resulting a minimum several day gap.
• Local non profits and food banks that serve Falls Church residents are welcoming donations (monetary donations preferred to make the dollars go further):
  • Capital Area Food Bank
  • Food for Others
  • Falls Church Community Services Council
  • Falls Church Education Foundation (select Family Assistance Fund)

(3) Weekend To Do’s

• If you don’t get the city’s weekly e-newsletter, Focus on Falls Church – sign up today. This week’s is jam packed with great information.
• Organics cart deadline is this weekend
• It’s leaf season! If you need a little bit of levity – this is a fun quick watch. Or if you want to learn more about leaving some or all of your leaves and save some raking and blowing, learn more here.

(4) PSA re “e-bikes”

I’m going to amplify what FCCPS and City Police have put out re these “e-bikes” you may have seen kids using around the city in recent months. I’ve also been fielding concerns about how kids are riding them, whether they’re allowed, etc. Bike Falls Church has a great one pager as does a new resource page on the city’s website.

The TL;DR – some of these “e-bikes” are not actually bikes! Because of their high wattage motors, some of these are actually not street-legal, so please check the rules and specifications before you invest in one for your child.

What’s Coming Up:

Wednesday, November 5 – Ask the Council Office Hours (City Hall, 9 am)

Monday, November 10 – City Council Meeting*

Monday, November 17 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, November 24 – City Council Meeting*

Monday, December 1 – City Council Work Session (joint with School Board)*

Wednesday, December 3 – Ask the Council Office Hours (City Hall, 9 am)

Monday, December 8 – 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:

Tuesday, November 18 (5 pm) – Harvey’s