February 10, 2026 Health & Human Services - Feb 10, 2026

meeting

Fairfax County Board Committees 1h 13m 6 speakers 3 agenda items transcribed 2 days ago official recording ↗

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What were the opening remarks and agenda for the February 10 Health & Human Services Committee meeting?

Unknown 0:00

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the February 10th Health and Human Services Committee meeting. I'm actually very humbled and honored to be appointed as chair of this committee. Thank you to Chairman McKay, for that. It's an area of profound interest to me. And so I'm honored to chair my first committee. First, I just want to say thank you to Supervisor Palachuk for her six years of dedicated leadership on the Health and Human Services Committee and the great work that you've done. You have led with compassion and purpose and never lost sight of the individuals and families that we seek to serve. And thank you, Chairman McKay, for your steadfast support as well. Some of you may know Human Services has been a long passion of mine.

Unknown 0:42

I was appointed by then Supervisor Cook to be on the CSB Board. I was appointed by Governor Northam on the State Social Services Board. So I'm very, very excited to be here. I don't want to take up too much time. I wanted to direct the board really quickly to the two items that we'll be discussing today and then turn to... Deputy County Executive Chris Leonard to talk about the minutes from the October 7th meeting. But the two items today are both board directed. First is the results of a panhandling survey that has had many conversations, but most recently was the result of some funding set aside you know, as a consideration item. It's 2023, I believe. And then the second item is a report on the post-secondary education funding.

Unknown 1:22

That was a budget guidance from last year. So with that, I will first ask Deputy County Executive Chris Leonard to say a few words about any actions that took place since the October 7th meeting.

Jeffrey C. McKay 1:31

CHRIS LEONARDO. Madam Chairman, before

Unknown 1:32

Jeffrey C. McKay 1:32

turn to him, I've just now been told Supervisor Herity is requesting to participate remotely in the Health and Human Services Committee meeting today. So at this time, I would ask Supervisor Herity if you could please state your name and general location for the record. If you're with us, Supervisor Herity, could you state your name and general location for the record? He's not there? OK. Now being told he's not there, so we may return to this at some point in time during the committee. But with that, we'll

Unknown 2:09

turn

Jeffrey C. McKay 2:09

back to you. Thank you.

Unknown 2:11

Thank you, Chairman McKay. With that, I'll turn to Deputy County Executive. Please note the minutes from the October 7th HHS Committee meeting were provided. Do you have any words to say about actions taken at that meeting?

Sue Reiser-Heiser 2:21

Yes. Thank you, Sue Reiser-Heiser. I just wanted to highlight the minutes from the last meeting. Obviously, we had a lot of discussion at the last meeting in October. There was a NIF memo that was sent out January 16th that went over some follow-up for that, and then I will also direct the Board's attention to to Brian's budget next week when he presents the budget. Both items, both the middle school after school program and the employee child care program will be discussed as part of the budget. And I will say that we've had some direct, really positive conversations with the superintendent on the middle school after school program. So I'm really hopeful that this budget cycle at least around

Tom Barnett 3:01

the

Sue Reiser-Heiser 3:01

middle school after school program. It's a little more orderly than maybe it was last year. And then I also wanted to take the opportunity, I'm sorry, Madam Chair, but wanted to highlight, as the board's aware, the Panino building is shut down. We had extensive water damage. We have contractors on site. Primarily, that's a CSB, DFS, and NCS building. It's closed for at least a week. It may be longer, probably will be longer. But I wanted to reassure the board that we've moved to our assistance from a distance. And the board will recall that we use that pretty effectively as part of the pandemic response. So our staff, everybody that works in the building has moved to that stance, assistance from a distance, and we're working very hard to ensure that we maintain operations and that our residents continue to get the programs and services that they need.

Sue Reiser-Heiser 3:50

So I just wanted to highlight that, too.