Sarah Taylor: What to expect from the 2023 General Assembly
Sarah Taylor, Assistant City Manager and Legislative Director for the City of Alexandria, joins the show once more to break down what we can expect from the upcoming General Assembly session that starts next week. What's going on with Governor Youngkin's mental health funding and affordable housing promises? Why is Alexandria advocating for local control of its health department? And how will a divided government affect it all?
Episode Transcript
Michael Pope
I asked artificial intelligence to write a Seinfeld episode about Alexandria's legislative package. Jerry, on this episode of Pod Virginia.
Thomas Bowman
We preview the upcoming General Assembly session.
Sarah Graham Taylor
Not in a way, not in a pat somebody on the head to make them feel better way.
Michael Pope
We're joined by a longtime friend of the show.
Sarah Graham Taylor
The devil is in the details, and we would love to hear some of these details.
Thomas Bowman
Assistant City Manager for the City of Alexandria, Sarah Taylor.
Sarah Graham Taylor
The language choices that are being made in our home is reflected in the media in our schools and our communities.
Michael Pope
What can we look forward to in 2023?
Thomas Bowman
This is Pod Virginia stick around.
Michael Pope
I'm Michael Pope.
Thomas Bowman
I'm Thomas Bowman.
Michael Pope
And this is Pod Virginia. A podcast that is welcoming our first guest of Season Four, the Assistant City Manager of Alexandria and the city's Legislative Director. She's an OG friend of the pod, appearing on one of our very first episodes way back in 2020. Sara Taylor, thanks for coming back on the show.
Sarah Graham Taylor
Thank you for having me, Michael and Thomas. Great to be here. Happy New Year. Looking forward to another session vamping with you all about the goings on in Richmond.
Thomas Bowman
We couldn't do a season launch without you.
Sarah Graham Taylor
I'm honored to be here again. And hope I have something to add to what is the interesting session ahead of us.
Michael Pope
Okay, I want to start out with a little twist. I asked artificial intelligence, Chatbot GPT, to write a Seinfeld episode about Alexandria's legislative package. So it starts out with Jerry and George in a coffee shop. Jerry asked George about what Alexander's legislative package was all about. So George explains that it was focused on recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and providing diverse housing opportunities. So Jerry makes a joke about how he thought the city was just going to pass a law banning socks with sandals. That's when Elaine enters the coffee shop. And she joins the conversation and mentions that she actually supports Alexander's legislative package. At that point, Jerry and George start making fun of Elaine for being overly politically correct and caring about woke issues. So the scene ends with the three agreeing to disagree. So Sarah, what do you make of the artificial intelligence chatbot calling your legislative package overly politically correct and full of a bunch of woke issues?
Sarah Graham Taylor
That probably tracks with what a lot of people would say when they look at the city of Alexandria's legislative package. I'm a little disappointed that it only got two sections into the legislative package before it apparently stopped reading because COVID-19 and diverse housing opportunities are just the first two sections of the package. I think it's definitely an interesting read and tracks what a lot of people would think. But the missed opportunity here was for George to yell, "read the room, Jerry." And really put Alexandria and Richmond back together in the way that they're well loved. I'm hopeful that others won't look at our package and think it's a bunch of progressive, woke liberal nonsense, but we're always looking at good government and efficient delivery of core government services. We tend to wade into some of the woke, but hopefully, that won't leave us broke at the end of the session.
Thomas Bowman
Making fun of Arlington and Alexandria is kind of the Virginia way, wouldn't you say,
Sarah Graham Taylor
It really is, and thank God for Arlington because they give me just a little bit of a buffer when it comes to that feeling.
Thomas Bowman
Sarah, this is actually a short session this year. And that is bad for anything that's new and complex policy. So talk to us about what some of these institutional challenges are and some of the other things that make this a tough year for the legislative session.
Sarah Graham Taylor
I think a short session is just it's just that, it's short. There's not a lot of time to educate or socialize people on new or complicated issues. A short session is really a time to make incremental changes to policies and programs, and budget items that people are already familiar with. It's really not a year for big sweeping changes because of the time but also because it's an election year. And election years aren't well known for complicated comprehensive policy changes or budget efforts. The short session is a challenge, and a short session with a divided body, and a governor with potential political aspirations beyond the borders of the Commonwealth of Virginia, all lends itself to a really complicated session. I keep using the phrase, it's a session that's likely to be full of sound and fury, that signifying nothing. Expect a lot of brochure bills and opportunities for legislators who either have primaries are general elections to put their markers down on the issues they believe turnout their voters, and those differ across the Commonwealth, obviously. What Kathy Tran is going to put out there to differentiate herself from Eileen Filler-Corn is gonna be different than what Marie March is going to put out there to differentiate herself from Ron Williams. And then you have the potential future political aspirations of the Governor. What is he going to bring to the table that would potentially attract the media or attract attention for his potential future political aspirations? Whether that's running for President or putting himself in line to be a Vice-Presidential candidate, all these things come together to point to a complicated session that is noisy but likely doesn't have a lot of impacts.
Michael Pope
One area where we might actually see some action is behavioral health. So the Governor has an interesting proposal called Right Help Right Now, where he wants to transform the behavioral health system in Virginia by throwing a lot of money at this. Including mobile crisis units and crisis receiving centers, and stabilization units. Sarah, what do we expect to see on that front?
Sarah Graham Taylor
I think the interesting issue when it comes to mental health, and especially crisis mental health in the Commonwealth, is that this is really existing at an intersection. It exists at the intersection of health care, public safety, and workforce development. And all these things need to be addressed in order to fully address this issue. I heard a legislator recently say that we don't have a bed shortage when it comes to crisis response in Virginia; it's really a workforce shortage. And I think that might be an oversimplification of the issue. But in order to address this fully, it's about more than just creating beds and units; it's about ensuring that there is a workforce who can staff these units, which can be available and responsive 24/7, as these Marcus alert response units are intended to be, and this crisis unites are suppose to be on a local level. And in addition, you need to look at the Public Safety piece of it; who is responsible for these people when they are waiting for a bed in a hospital? And ensuring that their safety is ensured as we transition them through the system. And so I think the Governor is certainly looking in the right place; this is a massive major issue. I think we just have to make sure that we're addressing all points of this. Otherwise, I don't think it comes together. To say that you want to create crisis units in several localities, that's great, but if you don't have people who can work in those crisis units, and we're already having trouble in a lot of places, I mean, the Community Services boards, in their legislative package, their number one issue is workforce shortage. And it's the crisis that is the workforce shortage beyond the crisis of mental health, beyond the crisis of bed shortages. It's the fact that there aren't enough people to staff these places.
Michael Pope
You bring up Community Services boards. I actually was recently talking to Senator Creigh Deeds about this. And he raised the issue of vacancies on those CS boards themselves. So there's a personnel issue, but then also, there's just a lack of leadership on this issue, right?
Sarah Graham Taylor
There is really a lack of leadership on this issue, in a lot of cases, points to a lack of direction. And this is an opportunity for the Governor to take the reins and give clear direction with funding. Hopefully, but again, it really needs to look at all the parts of this issue and make sure that people can transition into care, have care that stabilizes them, and then have them transition out of care and back into their communities; that whole continuum really needs to be addressed. And it's not just as it's not as simple as saying, we'll create crisis units, or we will expand the Marcus Alert program. It's really about sort of ensuring all of the points of the system where there could be failures are addressed. And this is a year with a lot of money in the budget. And so using that money to fully address this problem could be the kind of solution that really gives the Governor something to say that he governed on, as opposed to just being a talking point that that sounds good but doesn't actually play out in the end.
Thomas Bowman
You know, I'm still reading about the Governor's policies. And I'm waiting to see some of the more specific conversations that happen around this. But it strikes me that this is not a complete way to address the problem because poverty and mental health are inextricably linked. So people living in poverty are more likely to experience mental health challenges, and those with mental illnesses they're more likely to fall into poverty. So you've got to address both issues simultaneously if you want to create a better, healthier Virginia. And that means not only investing in mental health care and support services but also implementing policies that address the root causes of poverty, such as lack of access to education, housing, insecurity, and discrimination.
Sarah Graham Taylor
No, I think you're absolutely right; you can't just say, well, once people are in a mental health crisis, we can help them; you need to address all the points of the system. And you're right; it goes beyond the point of crisis; it goes to how we keep people from coming into crisis. And that's everything from, like you said, education, to housing, to health care, to job security, all of those things. Raising the minimum wage is probably an impactful part of this conversation. Universal Pre-K is an early part of addressing these issues. And it is incredibly complicated. And which is why I think it's important to not just give it lip service and to not just throw bits of money at get areas that feel good when you do them but don't in the end actually address the problem either going forward or as you said, the root causes of the problem.
Michael Pope
So we talked about the Governor's proposal for Right Health Right Now to transform Virginia's behavioral health system. But that's not the only proposal from the Governor on the table. He also has a proposal on increasing affordable housing known as the Make Virginia Home proposal. Unfortunately, at this point, it's more bullet points. And we don't really have a lot of detail on this. However, increasing the availability of affordable housing is something that Republicans and Democrats can agree on. But when you talk about removing regulatory barriers to development, what exactly does that mean? And are we gonna get rid of like environmental standards in terms of clean water and building codes to make sure that the buildings are sustainable? And, Sarah, what's the city going to be looking for when we learn more about the Governor's Make Virginia Home proposal?
Sarah Graham Taylor
I think you're absolutely right that this is one of those times when the devil really will be in the details. And we would love to hear some of these details because the Mayor of Alexandria, Mayor Justin Wilson, has sent a letter to the Governor saying, we believe that there is a path forward here, we believe that there is some common ground, and we believe that some of the bullet points you've put on the table have potential here. We kind of need to know exactly what you're talking about before we can go all in with you. But we want to be there with you. Looking for ways to support localities who are looking at their zoning policies and making sure that zoning policies are not a restriction or a barrier to housing creation or limit the rights of private property owners to do things with their properties that help add affordable housing to our communities. And providing that linkage as well, when localities are doing the right thing and are looking at their zoning policies and saying, hey, we are doing things in our locality that is making it easier for affordable housing to be built or to occur in our community. Rewarding that with additional funding from the state and making that linkage between the zoning policy work at the local arrival and state investment in affordable housing. And so and then, at its core, adding more money to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. I mean, that pot of money is just so critical to the ability to fund affordable housing across the Commonwealth. We need more money in that pot, and then we need to figure out the best way to divvy it up and ensure that it's being invested in places that are really doing the right thing. And in Alexandria, we feel like we're doing the right things. And so we want to be with the Governor; we want to be with folks who are working in this space. And we really want to figure out a way a path forward. But like you said, if you know if reducing the regulatory hurdles to creating affordable housing is doing away with stormwater regulations like we probably can't be there.
Thomas Bowman
I think most people would welcome youngins focusing on increasing the supply of affordable housing. But streamlining, permitting, and removing regulatory barriers cannot come at the expense of environmental protections or the safety of the homes getting built.
Sarah Graham Taylor
Oh, absolutely. And building safety is actually one of the issues that we've been we've been working with, existing building safety. You know, Alexandria has more old high-rise buildings than any other community in the Commonwealth. And so making sure that the housing that exists is safe. Ensuring that localities can have the authority to crack down on slumlords and bad landlords when it comes to issues of life health safety. That is something that that we're that we are very interested in working on. It's something that's in our legislative package. Delegate Marcia Price had a Bill last year that passed, but the Governor vetoed it. And so, hopefully, we'll take another run at that this year and see if we can sort of tie it into this whole effort. But there's, I think you're absolutely right, there is going to come to a point where two roads may diverge. And our efforts to secure and protect affordable housing in our community may not be in line with what the Governor is proposing, but we really hope that there's an opportunity here for some common ground and those communities like ours can benefit from some evolution of the way affordable housing is funded and created here in the Commonwealth. If you see Andrew Clark and me skipping through the Pocahontas building hand in hand, you'll know there's some movement when it comes to affordable housing in the Commonwealth.
Thomas Bowman
Well, yeah, it's clear we need a comprehensive approach because what we've got so far only addresses the supply side of the equation. But there's also a demand side of this housing crisis that includes stagnant wages and a lack of investment in affordable housing solutions in the first place. So there is room for compromise here or not even compromise; I see the potential for peace in the valley.
Michael Pope
I think he just like there's a square on the bingo card that we just filled.
Thomas Bowman
Oh, that reminds me, we need to get an official Pod Virginia session bingo card out.
Sarah Graham Taylor
Yes, I'm in for that! But I think that I think you're sort of going into a place where it starts to get; dangerous is the wrong word. But when people think of affordable housing in a bubble, it's kind of like the mental health thing. When you start looking at all the tentacles that come into it, it starts to get a little bit more complicated. So when you're talking about, for example, eviction prevention, what do you do to help people stay in the housing that they're able to afford? How do you make sure that they have access to all the resources that are available to them? How do you make sure that people are able to access the civil process related to eviction and have an understanding of it and be able to navigate it properly? I think that it is intrinsically linked to the issue of affordable housing. But I think it starts to make people nervous when you start making those connections too clearly, in a lot of cases.
Michael Pope
So we talked about a lot of the big picture stuff in terms of divided government and the behavioral health system, housing policy. I want to drill down to your legislative package, Sarah because there's something in it that struck me that I want to know more about, which is allowing local governments to have locally administered Health Departments. So Alexandria has a Health Department, but they're all state employees; they don't report to the City Manager, and none of those people are city employees. Explain what this potential change is and what it would mean for local governments across Virginia.
Sarah Graham Taylor
Well, we are only asking for authority for Alexandria to do this. We think that this is something that is right for our community. We think that sort of flipping the narrative of how our local public health system is administered and managed and having it be locally administered and locally managed versus administered and managed at the state level is the right choice for Alexandria. And interestingly enough, Alexandria is actually the only locality in Northern Virginia that doesn't currently have that authority. Fairfax and Arlington have locally administered Health Departments. Loudoun and Prince William Manassas and Manassas Park have the authority to do it but have not yet implemented it. It's a long game to go from the authority to the actual implementation of it; there are a lot of details that need to be worked out. And whether that's issues related to personnel retirement or technology, all the pieces come together to decide how your Health Department runs. But we believe that what we learned from COVID is that we supplement our Health department significantly through our local budget. And with that supplement doesn't come with authority to make certain decisions about how those monies are spent. And so if we are going to supplement our local health department as significantly as we do, we'd like to have the flexibility to have it be the right choice for that investment here in Alexandria. There are programs and funding and positions that are required by the state, and those things will obviously continue. But having the authority to create efficiencies. There are a lot of things that our Department of Community and Human Services is doing in the areas of the opioid epidemic and the areas of youth health and safety. And having the authority to administer the Health Department on the local level will give us opportunities to create some efficiencies and use our taxpayer dollars as wisely as we possibly can in providing services to our community when it comes to public health. So we're the last in Northern Virginia to do this. We're the last to the table. And we're really looking forward to getting this authority and then starting the process of putting it all together in the way that's right for Alexandria.
I'm just envisioning a scenario where you might have all kinds of disputes between a state government and a local government over masking policy and vaccinations.
There are certain things that we would not be able to do. I don't think that it suddenly gives us magical authority to do whatever we want; it basically allows us to do the same things that the state already does, only by ourselves. So it takes on additional responsibility for the locality. But it also gives you additional flexibility when it comes to some of the stories.
Michael Pope
A good example of that in a different context would be roads, right? The state handles roads in certain jurisdictions, but then in other jurisdictions, your local government gets to handle all the roads.
Sarah Graham Taylor
Well, and if you think about it in the context of COVID, I don't think that we saw that in Fairfax or Arlington, there was any significantly different approach when it came to masking or vaccinations or provision of services or PPE or any of those things. They just had a different system to achieve the same goals and the same outcomes. It's a fairly heated administrative process. But it gives us an opportunity to sort of craft the department in such a way that it's responsive to the needs of our community and, again, create some efficiencies where we might be supplementing.
Michael Pope
There's one additional part of your legislative package that jumped out at me, and this is probably not the biggest issue. There's not going to be a lot of discussion about this. But I find this sort of stuff really interesting, which is words that are used in the code. So here in the legislative package is replacing the word handicapped in the code with people's first language; what is this item about?
Sarah Graham Taylor
Over the years, the General Assembly has done a good job replacing antiquated or inappropriate language in code with language that is more modern, more appropriate, and more inclusive. Not in a pat somebody on the head to make them feel better way. But in a way where the language choices that are being made in our code are then something that is reflected in the media, in our schools, and our communities and using the appropriate language of the day in our code. So handicapped is kind of an antiquated term. I mean, you even look at Virginia already, and I serve as a member of the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities, that is, people first language people with disabilities. It is the idea that they are not distinct; you're not handicapped, you're not disabled, you are a person with a disability. And Virginia's already sort of started to use that sort of people's first language, that board being an example. And our Human Rights Commission actually brought it to my attention, I wanted to say, two years ago, and Delegate Patrick Hope had done a Bill the previous session about updating some code language to be more, more modern and inclusive. And so I reached out to him and said, hey, is this something you think you'd be interested in doing? And the process actually went through the Virginia Disability Commission, which looked at the code and found that there were 77 references in the code that were appropriate for replacement. They did some research on what the right language replacement would be, worked with advocates, people testified, and the Virginia disability Commission has recommended a Bill that replaces the word handicapped in code, the 77 references with this sort of people's first language, and as the parent of a child with a disability, it was something that was very close to me. But something that our Human Rights Commission brought to us, and I'm really pleased with the fact that it's taken, and that this is an opportunity for us reflect language in code that is sort of the most modern and appropriate way to talk about people with disabilities in the Commonwealth.
Michael Pope
How many years did you say you've been working on this?
Sarah Graham Taylor
Two years? So this might be the third session that I've touched on this?
Michael Pope
I mean, this just seems like a no-brainer. Like, what's the holdup?
Sarah Graham Taylor
I think it's just been; what word is the appropriate word to replace it with? Is it impaired? Is it disabled? Is it people with disabilities? Interestingly enough, there's actually a split in the community in some of the communities about how they want to be talked about. So as I recall, the hard of hearing and deaf community does not prefer people's first language. And there was sort of a split. People in behavioral health were very much people; first, some of the physically disabled community was very people first, hard of hearing and possibly sighted impaired; we're not as sold on the people's first language. So what was interesting was, as I recall, in the Bill that was recommended by the Disability Commission, it basically wound up that structurally, about 50% of them could be replaced with people's first language, and about 50% of them couldn't. So it was kind of a moment to split the baby, and everybody winds up being happy, and part of it is structural, and part of it is being responsive. But the process was really interesting in hearing people, especially advocates in the community, and self-advocates, especially about how they want to be referred to and how they want to be reflected in code. It is one of those ones that I really am glad that we continue to have in our package, and I really appreciate delegate hopes and efforts to sort of find a path forward for it in a relatively expeditious way. And so I'm really looking forward to that Bill this session.
Thomas Bowman
Sarah, I'm really glad that you're bringing this up because this is something that I've been able to educate myself on, or rather my wife has educated me on because she's a brilliant, special ed, policy, doctoral candidate if I can brag for her for a second. But she informed me once that there's like actually a fairly simple rule of thumb is there an identifiable community there or not? So whether it's a person first or identity first. You mentioned deaf people; also, autistic people refer to the identity-first language. But if you're referring to a very broad community, and well, people who are disabled are a large category, you would do people's first language. And Michael, you and I had run into that in the past when we were talking about people who are incarcerated or people who are in prison. We got educated on better language to use when we use outdated language. So this is definitely evolving. And it's also subjective. Because where a community may not exist today, or an identifiable community may not exist today, there could very well be one in the future.
Sarah Graham Taylor
Absolutely. And it's an interesting discussion, where some folks were sort of looking at this as a kindness. Whereas others were really looking at this as an opportunity to use the code in a way to inform people about how folks in these communities and folks who live with disabilities and those who support folks with disabilities would like to be referenced and use that as an as a way to educate and inform and update the way we talked about it here in Virginia. And going back to the fact that it's the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities, It's clearly something that somebody at some point had acknowledged. And it's just a matter of finding and replacing the code in the way that is most appropriate.
Michael Pope
You helpfully laid out a lot of the disagreements, has there been a resolution? I'm not going to use the bingo expression. But has there been a resolution to those disagreements?
Sarah Graham Taylor
Yeah, the Disability Commission endorsed a Bill that I would expect to see filed and up for consideration this session, and really grateful to the members of that body for a really thoughtful and productive discussion that moved the conversation forward. And I think we are going to wind up with a Bill that's going to change the code of the session.
Michael Pope
And they got buy-in from all these different interest groups?
Sarah Graham Taylor
Yeah, yeah. It managed to find peace in the valley; mark your bingo card!!
Michael Pope
You didn't; you went there?
Sarah Graham Taylor
I did.
Thomas Bowman
I already had mine marked, unfortunately.
Sarah Graham Taylor
Yeah, sorry.
Thomas Bowman
Maybe that'll be the free space. All right, well, there's so much to unpack with the session; maybe we're gonna have to come back to this because we didn't get to Glenn Youngkin's billion dollars in tax cuts or his money to put people in prison who need an abortion. And we didn't talk about a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to people who have served jail time. And we didn't talk about your flood mitigation efforts or RGGI. There's clearly a lot to talk about. But let's leave it there because we don't want to overwhelm everybody all at once or take up any more of your time Sarah. So thank you for joining us and helping us launch another season four of Pod Virginia.
Sarah Graham Taylor
It is an honor to be here with you. I look forward to more opportunities to talk about all the shenanigans and the goings on in Richmond. Look forward to seeing y'all in Richmond, hopefully, and I appreciate you having me on tonight.
