City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. BRADFORD C. ELLIS, VICE -MAYOR, WARD ONE CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. GEORGE C. SOLLEY, WARD TWO HON. FREDERIC N. HOWE, III, WARD THREE Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street HON. BEATRICE R. PAOLUCCI, WARD FOUR Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Council Work Session March 28, 2013 Recommended Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Thursday, March 28, 2013, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor Bradford C. Ellis (5:50). Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Frederic N. Howe, III, Matthew J. Kelly, Beatrice R. Paolucci, and George C. Solley. Also Present. City Manager Beverly R. Cameron, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Budget Manager Amanda Lickey and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Capital Improvements Plan. Budget Manager Lickey presented a PowerPoint which discussed the Fiscal Year 2014 projects in Public Works, Public Facilities, Public Safety, Public Education and the new Courts Capital Fund. The 2014 projects total $19,261,125 and broken down as follows Public Works $900,000; Public Facilities $939,000; Public Safety $490,000; Public Education $590,000 and New Court $16,643,125. For more information on specifics see attached documents. Councilor Paolucci had questions regarding school funding and whether the public education fund was part of their general fund. Mr. Whitley explained that there is a school capital fund which separates the capital needs from the everyday need. He further explained that there are three funds for the schools: general fund, capital fund and grants fund. Councilor Howe asked Mr. Whitley to provide a summary sheet for the fiscal year 2014 budget with all the school funds in one place. Mr. Whitley said he could provide. Councilor Devine had question regarding the capital budget for water. She wanted to know what the $350,000 was for and what the $1.7 million was going to cover. Mr. Whitley explained that the $350,000 was for contingencies (emergencies that may occur) and the $1.7 1 million would cover some of Dandridge Street, Spotsylvania Avenue, Rappahannock Avenue, Brent Street and Payne Street. The $2.4 million will get additional line replacements and cleanings as needed. Councilor Kelly asked how much of the contingencies had been used in the past and Mr. Cameron explained that unused contingencies are placed back into the budget. Councilor Kelly also suggested that when the City replaced the radios that they make sure they will be able to communicate with the regional partners. He suggested that this would be a good time to bid on the video contract for Council meetings. He also asked if the revenue sharing funds were included in the CIP and Mr. Cameron explained that those funds were not included and the City’s share would be $1.2 million with a match of $1.2 million for paving purposes. Vice-Mayor Ellis suggested this would be a good opportunity to start streaming the Council meetings. He said it would be more affordable and could be achieved and it would reach more people. Future Forecast. Mr. Whitley presented a PowerPoint on the future forecast for fiscal years 2014 through 2017. He presented a revised five year forecast. See attached documents for more information. Councilor Kelly requested that the forecast be placed on the City’s website along with the assumptions. Debt in General Fund. Mr. Whitley presented a PowerPoint on the debt in the General Fund. The presentation covered the current transfer to debt service and the transfer to debt service by issue, the percentage of the debt service to the total fund, accounting standards, clarification of fund accounting, general funds and debt service fund and finally alternatives. Councilor Howe said he would like to have a column that shows when a debt service retires. The concept is to have a simple tracking system for the debt service so that citizens can know when a debt service is paid off. Councilor Howe explained that the real estate taxes needed to be increased by $0.07 to pay the courts $2.7 million costs for the year. Councilor Solley disagreed stating that the courts are not only paid through real estate but through a combination of other funds. Councilor Howe said he didn’t care where the money came from he was using real estate so that the citizens could understand. He continued to explain his plan and that he wanted to see an automatic tax reduction to the citizens when a debt service is paid off. Council had a lengthy debate on the pros and cons of reducing the real estate tax after the 2 debt service is retired. They also discussed that the debt service should not all be factored as a real estate increase only, because it is paid through multiple funding sources and this would make it difficult to reduce the taxes based on this. Mr. Cameron explained that linking all expenditures for capital projects directly to real estate tax rate would he an error in logic because there are several other sources of revenue that help to pay the costs of a project. Safety, Sidewalks and Lighting. Councilor Howe presented a PowerPoint presentation to create an SSL fund for quality of life projects. This fund would be designed to pay for projects in neighborhoods not originally designed with pipe stormwater drainage, sidewalks or basic street lights. Councilor Howe proposed a $0.01 real estate tax increase and he would like to see it managed as a separate fund within the City budget. He also suggests establishing a board or commission with a Council representative and representatives from neighborhoods to engage the public to identify and prioritize projects. He would like to see Council direct the City Manager to add $0.01 to the real estate tax rate, direct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance to ensure perpetual funding of the SSL Fund, and finally present at Council for review and adoption. (See attached for more information). Mayor Greenlaw asked for clarification on the $0.01 and whether it would be perpetual per year and Councilor Howe said it would be a reoccurring fund. Councilor Howe stated that the Fredericksburg Pathways has been conducting a pedestrian safety plan throughout the City and they plan to present it to the City Council when it’s complete. The objective is to have a walkable City. Councilor Kelly also noted that this would be a good project for enhancement funds, but the plans must be in place first. Advertised Tax Rate. Councilor Paolucci proposed to include Package #1 – to Fund the BPOL Tax cut in the amount of $459,000. She proposed to add an additional penny for the BPOL and another penny for the SSL program making the advertised rate $0.05. Councilor Howe suggested advertising $0.09 to cover BPOL, SSL and Court cost. Councilors Greenlaw, Devine and Solley agreed on advertising $0.05 and Councilors Ellis, Howe, Kelly, Paolucci agreed on advertising $0.09. Councilor Paolucci said she wanted to advertise $0.09 because Council had not finished their discussions. Vice-Mayor Ellis suggested $0.09 because it covered everything Council had been discussing, BPOL was a priority and he thought the SSL program was a good program. Mayor Greenlaw said she felt $0.09 was a mistake and it was not fair to put the 3 burden of the debt service solely on the backs of the property owners because it’s paid by other sources. Councilor Kelly said he was concerned about raising the Real Estate tax to get the BPOL tax down. He stated that he does not plan to fund anything related to Sheriff’s unless there are matching funds from State. New Propositions. Vice-Mayor Ellis said he had read studies that say for every $1.00 spent on Economic Development it would generate about $5.00 in revenue. He would like a policy in place to perpetually fund Economic Development at a percentage of the General Fund revenue. This would give Economic Development a clearer picture of how much funding they would get. Councilor Kelly proposed not to fund any constitutional office or Sheriff’s positions unless it comes with some of the required state funding. He also said he would like further review of Economic Development and Tourism before any funding is added to the budget. Councilor Solley proposed to add $15,000 to the tree budget to make up for the unexpected increase in trees lost throughout the City. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, Mayor Greenlaw declared the work session officially adjourned at 9:04 p.m. Tonya B. Lacey Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 4