Board of Supervisors Public Hearing (CY19 Tax Rate and BOS Proposed Budget)   4/9/2019

And if everyone would please join for a moment of silence.

Thank you very much.

And I will introduce those with us this evening on the dais.

We have Sergeant Overton and Officer Errett.

Hope I said that right.

Thank you for being here tonight.

We have from the county executive's office, Mr. Doug Walker, Mr. Trevor Henry, and our county attorney, Mr. Greg Campner.

Of course the supervisors here, county executive Jeff Richardson, our board clerk Claudette Borgeson and Andy will be starting us off here in just a moment.

And before we go to, I think Jeff you're going to be leading us off with a presentation beforehand?

I think before we start that, I would like to put it on the record that I'd like to say wah hoo wah and congratulate the men's basketball team of UVA for the national championship and Coach Bennett to the same.

Having started my basketball watching career in Mem Jam in 1955, this was the biggest day so far.

I'm getting reports from the cardiology department both at UVA and Martha Jefferson that the number of people calling in with questions about their irregular heartbeats have increased dramatically in the last two weeks.

The last three days, since Saturday.

Mr.

Chair and members of the board, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here this evening and to just share some overview remarks about the proposed fiscal year 20 budget.

I have with me to my left, Andy Bowman.

who helps to manage the Albemarle County budget office through the yearly work that we do to get to where we are today.

Tremendous amount of work from Andy and his team as well as from Mr. Trevor Henry, Mr. Doug Walker and the departments that are here this evening representing all of the county departments.

We have a number of department heads and or representatives that are here as well as Emily Kilroy who has been instrumental in helping us to work with the public on the public outreach from the time that we started this work.

So thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening.

I'll try to keep my remarks short but I do want to take a couple of minutes to remind the board and for our general public that we are here tonight for our public hearing on the proposed 2020 budget.

and I'd like to take a couple of minutes to cover what this budget includes.

Our local revenues remain strong.

Our real estate revenues grew by about 7.5%, and we were looking at assessment growth, new construction, and land divisions.

You can see on the slide, personal property taxes up approximately $2 million.

Business and consumer-driven revenue categories are also performing strong.

These are an indicator that our local economy is strong across multiple sectors.

This slide represents our fiscal year 20 through 22 strategic plan.

This board of supervisors has worked diligently over the last six months to identify our top priorities moving forward.

These are our nine strategic priorities, and we have worked diligently with your guidance on aligning our budget resources to a number of these strategic areas so that we can begin to see positive impact on the community's quality of life.

in a number of these areas.

Another critical driver in this budget is the impact of the bond referendum projects that were approved overwhelmingly by our voters of Albemarle County in 2016.

Approximately 73% of the voters in that election approved up to $35 million in school projects, including the renovation and expansion of Woodbrooke Elementary School, which is pictured here, as well as some modernization and security projects at other schools throughout our community.

The board also worked last spring and summer on the fiscal year 19-23 capital budget plan and expressed desire for a capital plan that might include up to $59.1 million in support for projects that address additional school space needs in High School Center 2 as well as capital needs of existing schools

and what we call quality of life projects that address the needs for parks, bike, and pedestrian and other related infrastructure needs.

Due to our strong revenue growth, the tax rate increase that had been projected and tied back to our 2016 bond

was deferred in both 2017 and 2018.

And as this board knows, we now, with the 2020 recommended budget, we have a penny and a half, one and a half cent tax rate increase recommended, all dedicated to the CIP.

This slide basically is just an overview of the recommended 2020 budget as balanced with a 5.8% increase over fiscal year 2019.

Zooming into the general fund, we see that total revenues and recommended expenditures of just over $306 million, which is a 5.2 increase over fiscal year 19.

The general fund is where our board has the most discretion over expenditures and guiding our revenue, our discretionary revenue.

Only 10% of our revenues, I would note, out of the total budget comes from the state and federal sources.

That means that we're heavily reliant on our local revenue streams for support in our community.

Two-thirds of our local revenues come from property taxes.

As part of the fiscal year highlights, this budget is grounded in Albemarle County's vision of exceptional public education, a thriving economy, and continued high emphasis on protection of our natural built environment.

It directs resources to enforce the foundation of the organization, our government service.

It makes investments in the 21st century infrastructure needed to hold these up to further our vision.

This slide highlights how the proposed budget that the public hearing this evening is focused on is different than the recommended budget that was introduced in February.

Both are balanced at a tax rate of 85.4 cents per 100 of assessed value.

which again as I mentioned earlier is a 1.5 cents over the current fiscal year.

It includes funding for biscuit run development which which has been emphasized by this board as a top priority with Parks and Recreation.

It also includes the Crozet Connects route which will connect our Crozet growth area to central employers in partnership with John.

It also includes a housing generalist position in the Department of Social Services to help connect people with housing through the Federal Housing Choice Voucher Program as well as a fraud investigator position in our Social Services Department and also one additional police position.

in our support of our goal of squad-based policing and an assistant to the clerk position being funded at full-time status versus part-time.

The proposed budget is balanced on the same tax rate assumptions as the recommended budget.

These additions were primarily achieved with revenue related to the additions and making adjustments to reserves that were initially included in the fiscal year 20 budget.

A thriving economy needs more than that and it also needs these pieces to make our community a great place to work and a great place to live so that our employers continue to choose to grow here in our community.

That is supported by bike and pedestrian infrastructure, transit, affordable housing, reliable broadband, enhanced public works for our development areas.

All of these things work to make our community a community, a destination community.

This budget provides funding to enhance access to new and existing natural areas including parks, river access projects.

It's also about global environmental issues like climate change, solid waste, recycling, and conservation.

This budget prioritizes investments in public safety and welfare.

It includes support for our public safety departments, our agencies, as well as our volunteer organizations.

This budget also provides support for the broader community with recommended funding for partner agencies that support public safety, education, health and welfare, cultural offerings.

Our partners include the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, Regional Transit Partnership, Jefferson Madison Regional Library, and our Regional Emergency Communications Center.

This budget recognizes that through our cooperative partnerships, we achieve common goals for the entire community that we would not be able to do by ourself.

With that, Mr.

Chair, I would ask the board if you have any questions about this budget that either myself or staff will attempt to answer for you and consider, or you may want to, at your choosing, go ahead and open this up for the public hearing on the tax rate and the proposed budget.

All right, very good.

Well, then we will open the public hearing on our fiscal year 20 operating and capital budget.

I will just remind members of the audience that individuals will be allowed three minutes to speak.

And normally I read three names, but since only one person has signed up, I will only be reading one name this evening.

When you come up, please adjust the microphone right in front of your mouth so that you can be speaking directly into the mic.

The green light will go on once you start speaking.

It will remain on for two minutes.

Then the light that is yellow will come on for the third minute.

And at the conclusion of the third minute, the red light comes on.

When the red light comes on, we would just ask you to please try to end your remarks right there, summarize your point.

Thank you for giving us the chance to participate in this process.

As local high schoolers, my classmate and I have been expanding our understanding of the state of affordable housing in Albemarle County and learning about the affordability struggles that our growing senior population faces.

We have learned from the Jefferson Area Board of Aging, Habitat for Humanity, Impact,

and affected senior community members about the obstacles the elderly work to overcome on a daily basis in order to continue leading happy and healthy lives within their homes.

Many of our senior citizens have little to no income and face age-related costs, like the need to modify their homes or seek services that accommodate mobility limitations.

This combination of serious financial burdens and physical challenges makes finding affordable and accessible housing extremely difficult.

Albemarle is an increasingly expensive place to live and these senior citizens need our support.

They're the people who envisioned and built our community and making Albemarle County the beautiful place that it is today.

And we have a responsibility to ensure that they can continue to enjoy all that they worked so hard to make possible.

We believe that an excellent way of addressing this important issue, and the affordable housing crisis in general, is to increase the amount of county funding going towards the creation and maintenance of affordable housing.

We are very appreciative of the commitments the county has made thus far in furthering housing efforts, like the Habitat Southwood redevelopment, but we are very concerned about the limited allocation being made towards the county's housing fund in the upcoming fiscal year.

We see great value in a housing fund and believe that by making substantial and consistent additions to the fund, Albemarle could make major strides in reliably meeting county needs.

Knowing that there is a dedicated pool of money available for accessible and affordable housing initiatives would certainly be reassuring to many community members.

especially our low income seniors.

While we recognize that the budget development process is coming to an end, we hope that the county will keep our concerns and the housing needs of the rapidly growing elderly population in mind when it comes to allocating county resources in the near future.

Thank you all for your consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else in the audience that would like to address the board about the fiscal year 20 budget?

Please come down, sir, if you would introduce yourself by name in which Magisterial District you may reside in.

Adjust the microphone to your level of your voice and you will have three minutes to speak.

The green light will come on once you start speaking.

Yellow light comes on with one minute left at the end of two minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Randolph.

Thank you, sir.

Good.

You had free time there.

Okay, thank you.

Well, good evening.

I'm here actually representing one of our local nonprofits.

Oh, I'm sorry.

My name is Jay James, and I am actually a city resident, but I represent a program

that is dealing with the opioid epidemic that serves residents of Albemarle County as well as other members of the Central Virginia area.

And so I was coming by today, let me get a little go-hoos in there by the way, but I'm sure you've gotten plenty of that.

I've come before the board before and the only reason that I'm coming again at this standpoint is that our program has participated in the ABRT process.

And while we didn't get funding this last time, we've actually met with county staff, gotten

So I don't think it would be in good process to ask for an allocation to be made for what we requested through that process because I respect it tremendously.

But I would ask you to consider anything discretionary from a smaller standpoint from $15,000 to $25,000 to help our program which serves individuals in our county who are addicted to opiates.

and it's an 18-month residential program.

We have a 17-acre facility.

The key points of this are we work directly with our Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Tracy's office in identifying candidates.

They are court ordered by the Albemarle Circuit Court to enter our program and receive drug and alcohol addiction treatment.

and we also have a memorandum of agreement with the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Some of you may be part of the jail board.

So all of those things are in place as we continue to progress in the ABRT process.

But I think it behooves us to come before you to make sure that we not only, regardless of where the process is, present this before you and ask you to make a special consideration because our cost per individual we serve from the County of Albemarle

is 37,000 per individual.

To incarcerate them, it's going to be over 55,000.

So if we have a memorandum of agreement with the jail itself, we're working together with the therapeutic community in the jail to identify candidates who need substance abuse treatment as an alternative to incarceration.

So there's a collaborative effort to make sure these individuals don't recidivate and return to the County of Albemarle, but actually become productive citizens.

So the special request here for us is for a special allocation.

Not what we asked for.

Can't ask for that because we weren't awarded by a very solid process that is in ABRT that we continue to get positive feedback from.

But it doesn't take away from the fact of whom we serve.

and that 81% of our individuals don't recidivate.

Thank you, Ms. McKeel.

Yes, ma'am, for the record.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the audience that would care to address the board?

Mr. Chairman, not seeing anyone else in the audience, I'll turn it back over to you.

I'll just make a real quick one with respect to the Affordable Housing Fund.

I think that we will be, we do have other funds that we are using that are not specifically in the Affordable Housing Fund that support housing.

And over the next year, for next year, we'll be looking at that more closely.

And I guess I will add that in that same category of topics that of great concern is for our limited income taxpayers, how they will be able to be resilient if in order to pay more taxes to go toward this or any other program and to making sure that they're able to stay and pay their rents as they are or their mortgages or their medicine in the county.

I'll just make a quick remark that I really appreciate Jeff's organization of this budget and presentation of it and his connection with the community being relatively new here still.

And I want to congratulate you on having your brother named as city manager.

It's going to get a little tricky probably at some point.

I would just like to say that Jay represents the Bridge Ministry and I have been out there and toured and maybe some of the others of you, but it is a place that is

All right, so the second item's on the actual tax rate.

We do a public hearing on the calendar year 2019 tax rate.

Do we have sign ups for that item?

No one is signed up.

Is there anybody here that wishes to speak to the 2019 calendar year tax rate?

Coming back before the board, this time for committee reports and or matters not listed on the agenda.

I guess just this week at the various TomTom things for civic innovation tomorrow, creative innovation on Thursday and entrepreneurship on Friday.

and I'll just take the opportunity to announce that on April 19th is the Regional Housing Partnership's annual summit.

First time that they're doing the summit.

You can go to TJPDC's website.

They've got a landing spot for the housing partnership for details.

It's an all-day event.

I believe they still have some registration openings for the public if they wish to participate.

At last count, the openings for others was dwindling, so I would imagine there's still spots for those who want to participate if you haven't already signed up to do so.

Omni, yeah.

And it's all day.

I think it's 8.30.

It goes all the way through.

The actual partnership, the full body will meet at the end of that day.

People may want to go to individual sessions.

I believe that we have publicized this but it never hurts to say it again.

Friday is a county and city recognized holiday.

We do have the Tom Festival as you've mentioned Mr.

All right, very good.

Well, I appreciate all of you when it came out this evening to give comment.

And with that, then no other matters will adjourn to April 16th, 2019, 3 PM here in Lane Auditorium.