Consultants present public-engagement findings and fiscal testing options for James City County strategic plan

Consultants working on James City County’s strategic plan presented public-engagement results and a draft plan framework to the Board of Supervisors, and asked the board to prioritize fiscal scenarios staff should model.

Leanne King, a consultant leading the outreach work, told the board the project team conducted an in-person workshop at Legacy Hall and an identical online engagement between Sept. 9 and Oct. 10 that attracted about 180 participants. Of the roughly 114 respondents who completed an exit questionnaire, King said about 97% lived in James City County and the sample skewed older: respondents aged 55 and older made up roughly 76% of participants compared with about 41% countywide in 2023 American Community Survey estimates. King summarized common concerns as stormwater/drainage, traffic and overdevelopment; priorities named by participants included public safety, community development and land-use planning.

"We got good confirmation from the respondents that those were also themes that they supported," King said, and recommended carrying forward most of the county’s existing goals with modest edits.

The consulting team proposed adding three guiding principles—service focus, fiscal efficiency and transparent communications—and offered a revised alphabetical list of goals that kept many prior topics and added ‘‘engage and retain county staff’’ and ‘‘preserve and support development of attainable housing.’’ King flagged one draft decision point for the board: whether to keep the county goal to “collaborate to secure a sustainable long-term water supply” given that the James City Service Authority now operates independently.

The board discussed that item but did not take a formal vote. A supervisor noted concern that the water-supply goal still matters to county residents even though JCSA governs operations; another suggested the language could be clarified to emphasize collaboration with JCSA.

The consultants also described a fiscal testing program intended to show the budgetary effects of different strategic choices. Julie Herlins, the consultant leading fiscal analysis work, outlined four candidate scenarios for modeling: (1) increasing staffing levels for priority service areas; (2) expanding retention and recruitment pay or incentives; (3) changing levels of service (increasing or decreasing service intensity); and (4) modeling long-term operating costs associated with capital improvements. Herlins said the team would work with county leaders to define model assumptions and noted some scenarios can overlap (for example, staffing changes and level-of-service changes).

Board members asked whether the fiscal work could test resilience to economic downturns. Herlins and staff said they could model revenue shocks (for example, reductions in assessed value) and related staffing constraints, and that some scenarios could be framed to show contingency responses such as unfilled vacancies or lower service levels. The consultants said they expect to complete testing assumptions with county staff, run scenarios, and report back to the board with fiscal findings in March.

Why this matters: The strategic plan update will guide capital and operational priorities for multiple departments over the next five years. The public-engagement summary — turnout, demographic skews and theme ranking — will shape goal language; the fiscal testing will help the county identify which items are affordable, identify trade-offs and plan contingencies.

Board members directed staff and the consultants to proceed with the testing approach and to return with modeled scenarios and more detailed recommendations at the next briefing in March.