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 May 13, 2013 Recommended Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Monday, May 13, 2013, beginning at 5:45 p.m. in City Hall Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor Bradford C. Ellis. 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, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Budget Manager Amanda Lickey, Police Chief David Nye, Sheriff Paul Higgs and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Others Present. City Schools Chief Financial Officer, David Baker. Budget. Councilor Devine disclosed that she is employed by a government agency which receives funding from the City of Fredericksburg namely the Fredericksburg Public Schools but that she is able to participate in the transaction fairly, objectively and in the public interest. COLA & Transfer to Schools –Mayor Greenlaw began with Council making a decision on the employee COLA and transfer to schools. Councilor Paolucci asked for clarification on why the City is required to give a 2% increase to schools employees and she wanted to know how much of the $120,660 State funds would not be funded if the City does not increase salaries and what the number of teachers have to do with the salary increases. Mr. Cameron explained the 2% raise was for SOL positions in the public schools and the money was provided by the General Assembly and the amount that would be received annually by the schools is $120,660. The schools will only receive this money if they give the SOL funded position a 2% increase no later than January 2014. Mr. Baker said this is made up 1 of about 60% of the employees. He also explained that if the K-3 class sizes are not reduced to 23:1 they may lose some of the $346,000 in funding. Councilors Greenlaw, Kelly, Solley, Devine agreed to fully funding the COLA or phasing it in. Councilors Ellis, Howe, Paolucci recommended 1% COLA. Councilor Howe noted that he would be raising a conflict of interest issue on voting for salary increase because he felt it directly benefitted a City Council member. Advanced Life Support (ALS) – Councilors Ellis, Howe, Kelly Paolucci all agreed to postpone this for another year. Councilor Paolucci said if tweaks could be made in the budget she would be willing to hire in January 2014. Councilors Greenlaw, Devine and Solley agreed to fund the ALS. Councilor Solley said this has been a long standing goal and need in the community therefore he would like to see it funded. Mayor Greenlaw agreed that it has been a priority and that it was a core service that would improve quality of life for the elderly. Councilor Kelly said he would like to evaluate the needs of the Police and Fire Departments before making any decisions. He said Fires Station III is a major need that the City can’t fund. Councilor Devine said the City has had an overall plan to meet all the needs and City Manager knows the needs of the City and she encouraged everyone to move forward with the ALS item. Sheriff Deputies – Mr. Cameron noted that there is a need for three and a half additional Deputies to run the Courts. Councilor Howe recommended hiring but with the option to hire in January. Councilor Ellis recommended hiring in July. Councilor Kelly agreed to phase in as long as the City plans to try and get some funding from the State to cover the cost of the Deputies. Councilors Greenlaw, Devine, Paolucci and Solley all agree to fund the Sheriff’s in July. Information Technology Master Plan – Councilor Howe suggested using the $50,000 from the Master Plan on video upgrades for the City Council meetings. City Manager Cameron said a project like that would be taken out of contingency. Councilor Ellis agreed to cut it out of the budget, but after an explanation from Mr. Cameron that the study would help evaluate and analyze what projects were important and what needed to be done he agreed to fund it through fund balance. Councilor Howe and Councilor Paolucci also agreed to fund it through the fund balance and Councilors Greenlaw, Devine and Solley agreed to leave it in the budget. Councilor Kelly wanted it removed from the budget. 2  Cut to City Schools Line Item – Councilor Howe proposed to cut the schools budget by $150,617 for “increase in line items expenditures”. Councilors Ellis, Howe, Kelly and Paolucci stated they were all in agreement with cutting. Councilors Devine said she did not want to cut. Councilor Solley stated he wanted to call the school board to find out what it is used for before he decided and Mayor Greenlaw said she does not want to cut more than $150,000 to the schools. Eliminate 3 full-time positions – Councilors Ellis, Paolucci, Howe and Kelly were in support of eliminating the positions although Councilor Paolucci added that there are some positions that are critical. Councilor Howe said he would eliminate, but leave it up to Mr. Cameron on which 3 positions to eliminate. Councilor Devine stated it was hard to support this because she’s not sure where the cuts were coming from but she agreed to cut. Councilor Solley was not comfortable with eliminating the positions because he would like to see where the budget is before deciding and Mayor Greenlaw agreed. Councilor Howe asked where the City stood with 2013 revenue projections and Mr. Cameron said he was confident there would be a surplus, but he noted that he would not want to include that in the budget. Councilor Howe asked if Council would agree to look at the fund balance for pay for the non-recurring items in the budget ($800,000). Mr. Cameron reviewed the decisions made as follows: COLA savings $213,000 (includes $123,000 school savings), cut ALS Medics $135,000, deputies remain in the budget for the full year, IT Master Plan use fund balance, cut $150,617 to schools in addition to the COLA cuts. Mr. Cameron warned that this would jeopardize the schools receiving the State funding. Councilor Kelly said he didn’t think it would because of the way the COLA was being implemented, but he asked Mr. Cameron to call Dr. Melton to find out. Other decisions were eliminating the three positions $180,000. Class and Compensation Study and Succession Study – Councilors Ellis, Howe, Kelly, Paolucci agreed to reduce the HR budget by $75,000 by taking out both the class and compensation and the succession studies. Councilor Solley did not want to cut it out the budget and Councilor Devine said cut the class and compensation study, but she would like to have the succession study done. The total cuts to the budget equaled $843,000. Council cut $79,000 more then they needed and Councilor Kelly suggested that schools be the first priority in receiving the money. 3 Councilor Howe suggest that the schools look hard at their items and make cuts just as the City had to do in order to give their employees the 2 percent raises as needed to receive their money from State. Mayor Greenlaw stated that she does not want to cut the schools more than $150,000. Councilor Kelly asked that the City Manager contact the Superintendent of Schools to see if would work giving the employees 1% COLA in July and 1% in January in order to receive their money from State. Museum – Vice-Mayor Ellis requested Council discuss the cuts to the museum because there had been such an outcry and because it provides economic funding. Councilor Paolucci didn’t agree she felt the outcry was coming from the Board members and she added that the Museum wasn’t cut they were level funded. She said if they are going to be increased the same should be offered to all agencies. Councilor Kelly did not agree with increasing their funds. He said the City already provides a building and maintenance for them and other agencies don’t get that. He suggested taking the money and putting it in a fund for events downtown and anyone could apply and get the opportunity to use it for downtown events. Councilor Solley didn’t think it was fair to compare the Museum to other agencies because other agencies don’t bring events downtown. He said many people come just for the concerts that the Museum provides. He said it would not be good to cut things that are revenue generators. Councilor Howe stated he did not want to cut all of the money, he suggested maybe funding half of what was cut. He also said he would like to have a way of determining how much money the events bring to the City. On another note he said the cut to the schools was only about 1% of the City’s portion of the schools budget. He felt the reason for those additional funds needed were because of growth. He suggested using the additional funds on programs that have a return on investment and make a big impact for a small amount of money. Councilor Kelly added that the schools have done a great job of holding their costs down and the only reason the schools have proposed what they have is so that they can meet State and Federal guidelines to keep ratios up. He said by not giving raises you start to loose good teachers. He again suggested taking the $20,000 and putting it in a fund and having the EDA decide who gets the money for events. 4  Councilor Paolucci stated that she felt the schools had room to cut more out of their budget without hurting the teachers and programs. She also said she did not mind giving the Museum half of the $20,000 and she liked the idea of putting the money in a fund. Councilor Devine noted that when funding is cut for schools the programs are cut and those are the things the kids like most and where they get to know each other and the teachers. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, Mayor Greenlaw declared the work session officially adjourned at 8:43 p.m. Tonya B. Lacey Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 5