City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD FOUR CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. JASON N. GRAHAM, WARD ONE HON. JONATHAN A. GERLACH, WARD TWO Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street HON. DR. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, WARD THREE Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Joint Work Session with School Board April 4, 2023 Fiscal Year 2024 School Budget Fiscal Year 2024 Recommended Budget Discussions The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, beginning at 6:00 p.m. in Walker-Grant Center. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor Charlie L. Frye, Jr. Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Jonathan A. Gerlach, Jason N. Graham, and Matthew J. Kelly. School Board Present. Chair of School Board Jennifer Boyd. School Board Members Jarvis Bailey, Jannan Holmes (left at 7:20), Kathleen Pomeroy, Matt Rowe. School Board Absent. Vice-Chair of School Board Malvina Rollins Kay. Also Present. City Manager Timothy J. Baroody, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, Assistant City Manager David Brown, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Finance Director Robyn Shugart, Budget Analyst Donna Leahy, Superintendent Marceline Catlett, Deputy Superintendent Matthew Eberhardt, Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Brody, Chief Operations and Information Officer Michael George, Chief Academic Officer Lori Bridi, Director of Human Resources Sue Keffer, Supervisor of Student Programs Matthew Terry, Clerk of the Board Angela Chance Wilson, Deputy Clerk of the Board Angela Roenke and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Roll Call. The Clerk of the Council called the roll and determined a quorum of the City Council was present. The Clerk of the Board called the roll and determined that a quorum of the School Board was present. 1  Disclosures. Councilor Duffy disclosed that he was employed by the Fredericksburg School System and he could participate fairly, objectively and in the public interest. Vice-Mayor Frye disclosed that his spouse was employed by the Fredericksburg School System but he could participate fairly, objectively and in the public interest. Fiscal Year 2024 Recommended Budget Discussions and Fiscal Year 2024 School Budget. Assistant City Manager Whitley gave a PowerPoint presentation. He explained that there were several budget divers. He said staff recommended a $.02 real estate tax increase, there were decisions that needed to be made on personal property tax and other local taxes to discuss as well as the State budget. He said they also had decisions to make on personnel, and there was also inflation to deal with, debt service and decisions to make with the Schools. The main debt drivers were the debt service, inflation, economy and compensation. He also covered the General Fund Revenue Forecast, real estate revenue projections, real estate taxes comparative chart, elderly tax relief, real estate tax bills in other communities, personal property tax, sales tax revenues, meals tax, lodging tax increase recommended, hotel lodging tax comparative chart, State revenues, personnel recommendations, classification and compensation study, inflation impacts, inflation year over year change, inflation cost of patrol vehicles, debt service schedule, FCPS Fiscal Year 2024 School Budget approved budget and upcoming budget meeting schedule. See Attachment I for more information. School Board member Holmes asked if all City employees would be getting a 5-10 percent increase and Mr. Whitley explained they would but it all depends on where they fall on the scale as to how much they would get. School Board member Rowe asked how long it had been since the City did s salary study and Mr. Whitley said it had been 4-5 years. Chief Financial Officer Brody presented a PowerPoint presentation and she discussed the following in her presentation: Governor’s Proposed Budget Amendments, Funding Opportunities, Operating Fund Summary, Grants Fund Summary, Capital Fund Summary and Trends, Salary Study Results and Fiscal Year 2024 Funding Request. See Attachment II for more information. 2  Councilor Kelly asked if the schools would be coming to the Council to fund the conversion of the middle school into the elementary school and Ms. Brody said they would not. He also asked for projected operational costs for the schools. Ms. Brody said she did not have anything new but she would be working with Ms. Keffer on the staffing needs. Councilor Kelly said there needed to be a serious conversations related to operational costs moving forward because both the schools and the City has serious needs and everything cannot be funded. He asked what success looks like for the schools. Ms. Holmes stated that at every board meeting they state what success looks like for the schools. She said at every meeting they have informational sessions on social-emotional learning, addressing SOL scores at each level, tiered instruction and how to manage absences. She said all these things have to be looked at. Councilor Kelly asked if the school could issue something at the end of the school year that list those things and Superintendent Catlett said there is a comprehensive plan that has six components and it has a score card of the progress in all the areas. She said that was a mandated process through the state. She said they take this very seriously. Mr. Bailey said this is an opportunity to present this information so that others can understand the information. He also said shared services was a great opportunity for the schools and the City to work together but that should be done on the staff level and report back to the Council and School Board. Vice-Mayor Frye said he was in total agreement with shared services. Mr. Bailey said there are many opportunities where the City and schools could share services but each must create the culture to do so and that’s why he was asking staff to talk about it. Ms. Boyd said shared services was a great idea and many efficiencies could be gained but it would not solve the problems. She said getting to that culture would be engendering trust that what is being presented to the Council is the bare minimum they need to make things happen. She said they are doing what’s in the best interest of the children to develop them and have the best results possible. She said they are not asking for anything more than what the city staff needs. Councilor Kelly explained that because of what the City has coming before it, there are going to be challenges and it is imperative to show that everyone is making every effort to do what they can. 3  Councilor Duffy was appreciative of the salary information presented by the schools and he views it through the lens of a teacher. He said the level of teacher experience in the schools was challenging. He said he understands the difficulty of retaining people and he valued what the schools are doing. Mayor Greenlaw noted that salaries and benefits was nearly80-90 percent of the operating budget and most importantly are the teachers. She said it appears that the schools are applying the sum total of any difference requested and receiving exclusively to the effect it would have on salaries. Ms. Brody said if funding goes as plan next year they would be at 90 percent salaries and benefits. She said this is hard to sustain. She said they do not know if they will get state funding. Mayor Greenlaw asked if there was anywhere else to make up the difference other than salaries and Ms. Brody said she did not think so because of the inflation pinch that they were facing. Ms. Brody said they are working on efficiencies trying to increase revenue sources while being more efficient with some of their expenditures. She said she would be willing to reach out to Mr. Whitley and Ms. Shugart to see if there are some pilot programs where they could share services. Councilor Gerlach asked who much of the funding come from state for both Stafford and Spotsylvania, but Ms. Brody was not sure what the percentages were. He said he was appreciative that the City schools wanted to remain competitive with Spotsylvania and Stafford’s pay scales but the cost of living was higher in the City. He asked how to go forward so that the teachers could afford to live in the City. He said it is the same issue with fire and police. He said he was in favor of higher compensation for teachers if they could find a way to pay for it. Ms. Brody noted that the teachers do not want to leave the City but when they need more finances to support their family they must go for the higher paying jobs. Ms. Boyd said they have asked for what they think they will need because they do not know what they will be getting from the State. She said if the City was to give additional money than they asked for and they get more back from the State they would reimburse the money to the City. Superintendent Catlett said she wants to move quickly so that they can secure contracts. Councilor Devine said this is a yearly discussion where the schools are always chasing the salaries of the other jurisdictions. She said she was looking forward to costs saving measures 4 whether its buses, solar panels and looking for more ways to work together. She said it was great to see that many of the teachers were coming back. Councilor Kelly noticed that between the Juvenile Detention Center and the Rappahannock Regional Jail there was a million-dollar increase and he wanted to know if this was an anomaly. Mr. Whitley said there was a cycle on the debt service on the jail and this was a bad year for the City. He said it would cycle out but he noted the jail was having the same issue as the city with compensation and classification and trying to maintain correctional officers. Councilor Kelly said he had an issue giving tax dollars to the Economic Development Authority. With salaries he said he like to hear from EMS how successful they are with the money they are receiving from the City. He wanted to know what they were doing with the funds. He asked for a presentation from the Police and Fire on steps and grades. Mr. Baroody said they were preparing to bring back many issues related to personnel to Council on April 11 and he asked that no additional tasked be asked until this was presented. Councilor Gerlach stated that it was not true that the City was giving tax payer dollars to the EDA and he said the money would be coming from the increase in the hotel tax and that any money that goes to the EDA was a pass through. Councilor Kelly said lodging tax was City tax dollars. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time. Mayor Greenlaw declared the session officially adjourned at 7:32 p.m. ______________________ Tonya B. Lacey, MMC Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 5