Alexandria’s Office of Climate Action is only two-and-a-half years old, and now the City Council is considering eliminating half of its budget to partially fund a one-time, $1 million reallocation to Alexandria City Public Schools.
Multiple speakers both decried and supported the proposed move to eliminate $300,000 from the department’s budget during Tuesday night’s public hearing on proposed additions and deletions from the city budget.
City Council Member John Taylor Chapman made the budget addition to “add support services for the physical, social, and emotional well-being of youth and their families” and told ALXnow there’s a question of whether the department has delivered since being established two and a half years ago.
“A lot of folks want to see a lot more done,” Chapman said. “What I heard last night is that you have a number of individuals who don’t want funding to be taken away but aren’t happy with the outcomes from the office in terms of the amount of action they’ve delivered.”
The city declared a climate emergency in 2019 and, with the establishment of the Office of Climate Action in 2022, embarked on its plan to significantly curb greenhouse emissions by 2050.
The budget move is described by the city below:
- One-time additional funding for the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) operating transfer to add support services for the physical, social, and emotional well-being of youth and their families +$1,000,000 to come from a reduction in the Inova Alexandria Hospital contingency appropriation -$283,775, a reduction in the Office of Climate Action’s budget -$300,000, a reduction in the proposed Business Accelerator one-time pilot program -$50,000, a reduction in the Inova Alexandria Hospital contribution in the Other Health Services budget -$204,279 and the remaining -$161,946 to be funded from technical adjustments savings
- Chapman is also asking for a separate one-time additional funding for the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) operating transfer to add support services for the physical, social, and emotional well-being of youth and their families +$204,279 contingent upon WMATA adoption of proposed City contribution savings
Kathy Hoekstra, the former chair of the city’s Environmental Policy Commission, told Council that the Office of Climate Action was hamstrung by City Manager Jim Parajon’s office.
“Can you think of any other organization within the city where Council and the city manager let them underspend their budget by 85% for two years?” Hoekstra told Council. “I can’t. So what are we, the members of this community, to think about the seriousness of Council and its manager when it comes to declaring a climate emergency in 2019 but then letting this happen?”
Mayor Alyia Gaskins said that Council needs clear expectations of all city departments.
“Anyone that receives funding from the city must be held to a standard of results,” Gaskins told ALXnow. “That includes the Office of Climate Action, ACPS and all departments and partners. If they are not, then it’s on the Council to make clear our expectations and outline a path for moving forward.”
Hoekstra said that the department didn’t spend funds allocated by the city and that there was a lot of confusion on how funds were to be directed.
“From my perspective, and as chair of the EPC, we were routinely getting a list of ever-changing potential projects that seems to always be coming soon,” Hoekstra said, and offered a potential solution. “All the interested state stakeholders should meet to agree on two-to-three projects, not a laundry list that move the needle and develop metrics, budget and a timeline for each and then meet monthly to determine the progress. I continue to feel that it is a folly to use money to support kids education while at the same time you are condemning them to face a planet that is less safe and more inhospitable.”
Alexandria resident Becky Hammer said that the move is a signal about the city’s priorities.
“The vast majority of Alexandrians support meaningful steps to reduce our carbon emissions and help our city adapt to the changes that are already underway,” Hammer said. “We’re experiencing extreme heat, flooding, intense storms, and we want solutions. We don’t want all of our plans to just do words on paper.”
Katie Golden, a school social worker at Patrick Henry K-8 School, said that the funds are needed to support a growing population of students with emotional needs.
“We are in a time of deep anxiety, national turmoil,” Golden said. “Our students are truly feeling this anxiety, self-harm and suicidality, stress from the migration crisis, food insecurity, becoming homeless after an eviction. All of these challenges are daily parts of life for many of my students.”
School Board Member Abdulahi Abdallah also testified, expressing appreciation for the additions.
“The additional funding is a critical step towards helping ACPS recruit and retain student-facing staff, address the bus driver shortage and sustained programs that directly impact our students well being and academic success,” he said. “With federal funding uncertain many students still navigating the effects of the pandemic, our city must do more than just maintain we must invest, and that’s exactly where your recent actions show a willingness to prioritize our schools against financial uncertainty, your efforts in trying to fully fund the ACPS budget do not go unnoticed.”
Chapman said that he will provide more details on how the Office of Climate Action can do more with less in the future.
The city released the following when the office launched in 2022:
The creation of the City’s Office of Climate Action marks a monumental achievement aimed at combating climate change through a city-wide approach to empower the Alexandria community to actively participate and contribute to sustainable action.
The City of Alexandria has a long history of fighting the climate crisis. As the first locality in Virginia to adopt an Eco-City Charter in 2008, the City of Alexandria has been at the forefront of progressive environmental change and action at the local level. In 2011, the City published an Energy and Climate Change Action Plan to promote local actions to save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and prepare for the impacts of climate change. In 2019, the City declared a Climate Emergency and adopted its Environmental Action Plan (EAP) 2040, which sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the environment, promoting sustainability across sectors, and increasing community engagement. In 2023, the City updated the Energy and Climate Change Action Plan to support implementation of the actions in EAP 2040 and identify additional actions to further reduce emissions and better address the impacts of climate change, with a focus on equity.
Given the City’s historic efforts to help climate efforts, the formation of a centralized climate office is a timely milestone. The Office of Climate Action will lead efforts in a variety of areas, including but not limited to, energy efficiency, high performance buildings, renewable energy, climate change mitigation and reporting, electric mobility, business assistance, community engagement, and advocacy.
The Climate Action Officer and Public Affairs and Engagement Specialist will join five reallocated employees from the partnering departments to form the City’s Office of Climate Action. The overall composition of the Office of Climate Action both recognizes the prior and ongoing efforts across City departments and aims to set up an implementation and partnership-oriented approach. The Office of Climate Action will work closely with City departments, other governmental entities, and the community in achieving EAP2040 and ECCAP commitments.
