Chesterfield County Champions Central Virginia’s First-Ever Monolingual Community Meeting for Spanish-Speakers
Café Con La Comunidad allows more than 200 monolingual Spanish speakers the opportunity to ask questions in Spanish to Chesterfield’s Board of Supervisors, county administration In a first for Chesterfield County and Central Virginia, the Board of Supervisors and administration met exclusively with monolingual Spanish speakers during the county’s inaugural Café Con La Comunidad event […]
Behavioral Health Commission Discusses Interactions Between Law Enforcement and Individuals in Crisis
The Behavioral Health Commission met on October 1, devoting the majority of its meeting to a briefing by Commission staff on the question of how to minimize assaults on law enforcement officers by individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. This issue was referred to the Commission by the Disability Commission; legislation was considered in 2024 […]
VACo Receives Responses from FDA to Members of the Virginia Congressional Delegation on Federal Regulatory Changes to Prescription Drug Box Program
VACo recently received letters sent to U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger and U.S. Representative Bob Good, members of the Virginia Congressional Delegation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in response to inquiries from those members regarding concerns over federal regulatory changes association with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, 21 U.S.C. § 351 et […]
VACo Highlights County Initiatives at Disability Commission Meeting
Joe Lerch, VACo’s Director of Local Government Policy, and Doug Bilski, Assistant Director for Clinical and Prevention Services at the Chesterfield County Community Services Board, highlighted county initiatives to create and retain affordable housing for individuals with disabilities at the September 24 meeting of the Virginia Disability Commission. The Commission’s Chair, Delegate Amy Laufer, had […]
VACo Releases Its 2025 Preliminary Legislative Program
VACo has released its 2025 Preliminary Legislative Program, which was drafted through VACo’s steering committee process. The document includes a host of important and timely proposed policy statements including language pertaining to K-12 education funding, local taxing authority, stormwater regulations, land use planning, transportation, broadband, health and human resources and other local budget and legislative […]
Regulations Under Development to Allow Mobile Medication-Assisted Treatment Services
PHOTO CREDIT: Project RIDE Facebook Page.Mobile MAT Unit operated by the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine. — Regulations that would allow existing providers of medication for addiction treatment to add a mobile component to their services are under review and are expected to be posted for public comment soon. As defined in current regulations, […]
Visit Orange County and the Orange County Historic Courthouse
Location: 105 West Main Street / North Madison RoadBuilt: 1858 – 1859Style: Italian VillaArchitect: Haskins & Alexander of Washington, DCContractor: Spooner & Darrow Description: The building faces south and is a one and a half story white colored brick and wood structure. The building is located on landscaped grounds in the center of Orange. The […]
Several Children’s Services Act Policies Under Review; Public Comment Sought
At its September 12 meeting, the State Executive Council for Children’s Services approved seeking public comment for 45 days on two notices of intent to develop policy. This is the first step in the policy development process. SEC Policy 4.4.2 – Medicaid Funded Services: Comments are being sought on a proposed repeal of SEC Policy […]
VACo Submits Comments to Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding after Inaugural Meeting
The Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding met for the first time on Monday, September 16 to organize and review recommendations from the 2023 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) report on K-12 education funding. The work of this subcommittee is critical to moving forward with much needed funding reforms to the […]
Joint Subcommittee Reviewing Tax Preferences Considers Tobacco Taxes, Film Incentives
The Joint Subcommittee to Evaluate Tax Preferences met on September 17. This body, which consists of legislators from the House Finance Committee and the House Appropriations Committee, as well as members of the Senate appointed upon the recommendation of the Chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, has a broad mandate to “oversee the […]
VACo Testifies and Submits Comments to Joint Commission on Technology and Science on Artificial Intelligence
The Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS) Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee met on Monday, September 16 to review proposed legislation concerning the use of high-risk artificial intelligence (AI) in both the private and public sectors. VACo staff presented testimony and then formal comments to the subcommittee with concerns of centralization of AI policy, impacts to […]
Joint Commission on Health Care Receives Briefings on Health Care Workforce and Hiram Davis Medical Center Closure
The Joint Commission on Health Care met on September 18 and received a briefing on the results of Commission staff’s study of the state’s health care workforce programs and a presentation from Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Commissioner Nelson Smith about the Department’s plans to address significant capital needs at Hiram Davis Medical […]
Money Committees Receive Updates on State Revenues, ARPA Spending
Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings briefed members of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees on September 17 on state revenues and the economic outlook. He characterized August as a “quiet” month for state revenues, as the bulk of August revenues consist of income tax withholding and sales tax collections; September collections, which […]
County Feeding Ban Update as Formal Deer Hunting Season Begins
The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) would like to remind all counties of the current prohibitions on the feeding of deer and elk. Feeding is unnecessary, can harm the digestive system of deer in some cases, often leads to increased conflict with people, and can create an overabundance of deer in an area. The […]
VACo County Pulse – Energy Landscape of Virginia Series with Joe Lerch | Episode 3 | Mecklenburg County
Season 4 | 2024 Energy Landscape of Virginia Series with Joe Lerch Energy Landscape of Virginia Episode 3 | Data Centers and Utility-Scale Solar – Mecklenburg County | Part 1 Listen to the Podcast Part 1. Mecklenburg Experience with County Administrator Alex Gottschalk This 2-part episode was recorded on location in Mecklenburg County, which is […]
VACo Region 5, 9 and 11 Meeting Recap
VACo held its sixth of eight regional meetings for 2024 virtually on August 19th. Counties from VACo Regions 5, 9 and 11 attended the meeting. The meeting began with a welcome from VACo President and Albemarle County Supervisor, Ann Mallek. VACo was pleased to have Chandler Vaughan and Caroline Luxhoj from the Department of Housing […]