City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. WILLIAM C. WITHERS, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD TWO CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. BRADFORD C. ELLIS, WARD ONE HON. DR. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, WARD THREE Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., WARD FOUR Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Council Work Session April 14, 2015 Fiscal Year 2016 Recommended Budget Review The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor William C. Withers, Jr. Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Bradford C. Ellis, Charlie L. Frye, Jr. and Matthew J. Kelly. Also Present. City Manager Beverly Cameron, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Budget Manager Amanda Lickey and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Conflict of Interest Declaration. Councilor Duffy declared that he was a member of a business, profession, occupation or group of three or more members affected by the transaction, namely employees of the Fredericksburg Public Schools. Councilor Devine declared that she was a member of a business, profession, occupation or group of three or more members affected by the transaction, namely employees of the Fredericksburg Public Schools. Councilor Frye declared that his wife was a member of a business, profession, occupation or group of three or more members affected by the transaction, namely employees of the Fredericksburg Public Schools. Budget Propositions. Budget Manager Lickey presented the propositions $9,000 for the Midnight Madness program, Councilor Frye; Additional $10,000 for tree pruning, Councilor Devine; additional $20,000 in local funding for FRED Transit Bus Stops, Councilor Frye; reduction to transfer to City Schools by $200,000 and reduce general fund by $160,000 – Councilor Withers; additional Area Plan Funding in FY17-FY20, Planning Commission. Councilor Kelly added that he would like some money for the Sister City programs, freezing 1 some money from the Constitutional Officer’s budgets, and eliminate R-Board tipping fees from the budget. He also wanted to discuss giving staff a raise comparable to schools. See Attachment D for more details. Councilor Ellis said he would like to discuss a 1½ to 2 percent raise and $50,000 for a full-time Coordinator’s position at the rescue squad. Vice-Mayor Withers said he would like to cut the tax rate by one cent. He said 30% of the budget goes to the schools and 31% of the City’s income comes from real estate. He said the tax rate is the only thing the City can control and he sees the taxes having to increase taxes in the next few years so he wanted to try to find a way to reduce taxes this year. He said this was a way to cut some funding to the school budget. Mayor Greenlaw stated that she was concerned that reducing the tax rate this year may cause more of an increase next year. She felt it would be better to spread the increases over the next few years. Propositions 7 & 8 – Constitutional Officers and Tipping Fees – Councilor Kelly said he would like to cut the Constitutional Officers budgets and flat line their budgets because the state was not stepping up to the plate with their funding. He also suggested not paying the tipping fees at the R-Board because the City was helping cover the debt but the City was not getting credit for doing so. He suggested continuing to pay $20 and have it go toward the City’s portion of the deficit and take the $34 off the table. He said $20 met the City’s obligations. He suggested this because Stafford County was not paying their portion of the deficit. Mr. Cameron said this could be a possible savings of $133,000. Councilor Ellis said he could not support flat lining the Constitutional Officers’ budgets. He said the City made the decision to build the courthouse and the City must operate it. Councilor Frye asked what the cost would be once the JDR court opens and Mr. Cameron said there would not be an increase. Proposition 4 – Reduction to Schools – Council did not agree with reducing the transfer to schools by $200,000 and reduce the general fund by $160,000. Councilor Ellis said he did not want to cut the schools budget. Councilor Frye said if the money was cut from the schools the Council would not have control over how the money was spent. Councilor Devine was willing to cut the schools but not by $200,000. Councilor Duffy did not agree with cutting the schools. Councilor Kelly suggested talking with the schools and letting them know about the possible cuts and if it were cut, ask where the cuts would be taken from. 2  Councilor Withers said he only suggested this, because this was the only place he could find to cut the budget. He said if Council was not in agreement, that was ok. Councilor Devine said she would be willing to cut $40,000 to $50,000 from the schools. Proposition 1 – Midnight Madness – Councilor Frye said this was a City run program that ended in the mid-90’s. The schools would provide bus transportation for the kids and the janitors, the police would have officers present and Parks and Recreation would run the program. The program would offer kids a safe place on Friday nights until midnight. The $9,000 would be used for the staff, janitors and to run the busses. He said he looked at the cost to incarcerate a juvenile at the detention center and for one kid it cost $144,000 per year and an adult would cost nearly $20,000 per year. There were no objections to this addition. Proposition 2 – Additional Funding for Tree Pruning – Councilor Devine explained that $10,000 was needed to prune the trees that have been planted and if they are not pruned they would not look the way they are supposed to. The reason for planting the trees was to beautify the City. She noted that Free Fredericksburg have been partnering with the City to do this work because the City did not have an arborist. The Mayor noted that the trees did more than beautify they provide clean air, cooling and they were essential for the quality of life. She said it was proven that shoppers shop more when they are in a tree lined environment. Vice-Mayor Withers suggested cutting the increase to $5,000. Councilor Kelly agreed with the $5,000. Council was in favor of the $10,000 except Vice-Mayor Withers and Councilor Kelly. Proposition 3 – Additional Funding for FRED Transit Bus Stops – Mr. Whitley explained that the money could come from the gas tax. He said there was already $20,000 in federal grant funds that would install benches and shelters throughout the FRED system and this included two in the City, Dixon Street near the pool and another near the 400 block of Princess Anne. Many benches are done by partner agencies. He asked FRED staff about locations to place benches and they were concerned with managing the installation of some of the places because of the rights-of-ways. Based on ridership they suggested no more than four benches at $2500 per stop. The suggestions were Cowan at Monticello, Jefferson Davis Highway at Kingsmill and Townsend Square, Lafayette Boulevard near the Battlefield Center, Jackson Street across from RACSB, two at Dorothy Hart Community Center and Sam Perry Boulevard at the Moss Clinic. FRED said they could do no more than four in a year. 3  Councilor Frye said he suggested this proposition because many of the riders were elderly and handicapped and they are holding on to the FRED signs while waiting for the bus. He would like to see benches at as many stops as possible. Councilor Kelly suggested funding these items through the CMAC funds. Councilor Frye said he had no problems with this suggestion. Proposition 5 – Area Plan Funding – Councilor Kelly thought it would be a good idea to meet with the Planning Commission to determine what their long range plans were. He said it would take five years to do the area planning zones and he said the City didn’t have five years to do this. Vice-Mayor Withers agreed that he would like to meet with them, as well as Mr. Herd the consultant. Proposition 6 – Additional funding for Sister City Programs – Councilor Kelly stated that there used to be $5,000 in the budget for this but now each of the Sister City organizations are funding everything themselves. He said it would be a good idea to have a little funding to support them for incidentals like car rentals. Mayor Greenlaw said she and Bob Antozzi were in the process of meeting with the three sister cities to set up something official so she didn’t see this as being needed in this budget. Councilor Kelly said he had no problem waiting. Proposition 8 – Raises vs. Bonuses – Councilor Kelly said the bonus could be converted into raises because this had been a big topic. This will give the employees a 1.5% raise. Mayor Greenlaw said giving a 1.5% raise would only be $15 to $20 on the lower end of the pay scale and she felt $1,000 would reward the lower end of the pay scale more. Councilor Ellis said he did not agree. He would like the employees get a raise, because the raises in the past were not keeping up with inflation. Vice-Mayor Withers said he prefers to give the bonus because they would get more out of a bonus than they would a 1.5% raise. He also noted that insurance was continuing to go up and the City was paying for this and this should be considered when discussing this topic. Councilor Duffy said he was comfortable with a bonus as long as it was not the normal. Ms. Lickey said in the past the employees had received a bonus then two raises and now the City was proposing a bonus. Majority of Council supported giving a bonus. Proposition 8 – Rescue Squad Position – Councilor Ellis said he spoke with the rescue squad and they requested $100,000 but after asking them what their absolute need was they 4 said $50,000 for a full-time Coordinator. This person would do grant writing, the day to day administrative duties and the application processes. There was no one in the office from day to day. Councilor Kelly said he met with the Police and Fire departments and their situations were just a dire. He said he does not see how this could be pulled off. Mayor Greenlaw, Vice- Mayor Withers and Councilor Devine agreed with Councilor Kelly. Councilor Frye said he could support and Councilor Duffy said he could not support because it was for administrative only. Capital Improvements Budget – City Manager Cameron asked whether the Council wanted to advance design and construction of the Original Walker-Grant renovations to FY16. He made suggestions on that approach. See Attachment A for those suggestions. Councilor Ellis said he was in favor of advancing the Original Walker-Grant. He also asked where the garage fit in between FY16-FY19. Mr. Cameron said there were two garages in the CIP the Liberty Place garage was in FY17 for $2 million and he said the City was committed to that. The second garage was in FY19. Councilor Kelly said he felt a communication study should be done sooner rather than later for the Fire Department. He said they would like the communications to be regional. He said the City also needed to deal with the shortage of storage for fire equipment. Council was in support of moving the Original Walker-Grant renovations forward. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, Mayor Greenlaw declared the work session officially adjourned at 7:11 p.m. ___Tonya B. Lacey_______ Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 5