Board of Supervisors Special Meeting (Budget Work Session)   2/21/2019

Chair, we'll have Maury Althaus, I believe it's from the start of the second and I apologize I didn't realize that she stepped away just for a second.

So up on task today we're going to do an overview of revenue and expenditures generally and then the school board's funding request about the midpoint probably something like that?

Chair, I believe we are ready to go and we will turn it over to you to start the afternoon work session.

I'm here today, did you do other introductions, Jeff?

I did not.

Okay, maybe we could go down the line and introduce who's here with us today.

And then here behind me, we have staff members that will be supporting us today.

Doug Walker, Deputy County Executive.

Our next meeting will be a meeting we'll discuss CIP and debt and then move right into the general government functional areas And then you can see we'll have the revenue update on the 28th And we'll continue through the process on March 4th is an important day that you'll be finalizing your tax rate for advertisement You have some placeholders for additional work sessions You may have time during some of your budget your regular board meetings to discuss the budget and then by the 16th of April You'll be setting the tax rate and improving the budget

and more.

Did you have a question about that?

So one board member though can request that the entire board have a discussion around something.

I mean, if something really, really went much, much higher than we could ever imagine in the future, it's the revenue that, you know, we just have to generate revenue to support this, but based on our best projections at the time, it still looks like we'll probably have to do something to obtain some

Several years ago money was taken out of the CIT property.

That's not what you're talking about.

Are you still projecting pretty close to this 4.2?

So the revenues that we believe we need in the CIP right now would be for those three items and we would go into depth with it at our next session.

Sounds like the answer is pretty close to probably this.

And Mr. Latire is here to answer any questions and also Mr. Hall's house.

We'll take that down and take that as a follow up item.

It does look that way, and I actually had the same question when I saw the chapter.

I don't think that you'll see a big change in the actual numbers, but we just kind of reduced them to what's on that website.

So the sheriff's department, which has a multi-hundred thousand dollars of reduction, they are not paying that?

Yeah, the sheriff's, it's just showing about almost $58,000 reduction based on

I'm just trying to figure out what this red ink looks like.

We'll keep you updated on that if it gets any worse.

I'm not sure I can answer that.

We can follow up.

They've added a lot of properties over the years.

We'll do a follow-up on that.

I'm not sure I'm saying try to tax the debt.

I didn't know we had a lot to do with that.

And if we're not, to talk to the board and exempt about that.

OK. Greg's predecessor had to fight for it multiple times.

Okay, we'll take that as a follow-up item and bring you to that.

Lori, can we go back to page 39?

That increased the objective 22.3%.

one point eight million and we're looking now at an increase of three hundred ninety seven thousand dollars on the use of money and property.

Yeah, that'll be a question for the finance department.

If you've been following the financial media, as I know you do, it looks like the Fed might not be raising interest rates.

It would mean, however, that you wouldn't be putting money into long-term bonds.

No, you wouldn't at this point.

I may have to help them with this one already.

Well, I'm glad I brought it up for you to be able to share that.

Okay, very good.

And you're aware that we, per policy, per board policy, 10% of this fund balance is kept as a reserve for the county.

So I think we all know how this works.

One time type of spend.

It would be a policy debate.

You'd have to go in and do an analysis and go, is ten percent the right amount?

We feel comfortable with our numbers.

You all are just shoring it up to make sure that every year we have a 10 percent, what am I trying to say, rainy day fund, for lack of a better word for that.

Well this is the cash flow.

Yes, exactly.

Between January and June.

Now, I hate to say I think that's what somebody else thought, but that would be my bad.

But the 6.3 is very ridiculous.

Think about what the next slide is what we have to look at.

We'll see if there's more questions.

I wrote headwinds at the top of painting 171 because that's the only headwind.

and access it because of a revenue downturn that happened fairly quickly or something that can give you the place to do that.

Where does that go when it's not spent?

So that's the policy that the board put in place for that funding.

Stabilization fund to 10% or not.

I'd just say that we do intend at the next work session to really dive into this.

Good.

I figured you would, but since we were on this, it gave me an opportunity just to bring it up so you're aware.

Thanks.

So that 1.9 is recommended based on that policy to move it over.

So yeah, thank you.

The CIP is getting larger, and we need to do more, make sure that we do things in a real balanced way, and we make sure that we have the staffing and everybody in place, at least temporarily, to manage the growth that we have in the CIP that's going to be coming at us in the next year.

Do I understand those are staffing changes at 150?

What support this will do in a one-time nature in the finance department.

Sorry to stop you, but this is really important.

So this particular amount of money is one-time funding.

If, in fact, we approve the 1.5 increase to go into the Capitol, that is not one-time money.

That's correct.

That is really a big deal.

How, a decade ago?

It's reoccurring.

I did have, you're going to go to water resources and I'll hold off and then come back to that.

But so I just want to throw that out.

We'll make sure we bring that and connect that back.

Is the stabilization fund just reoccurring?

So then we make the calls and then we will take it to you as an appropriation request.

It could.

Again, this is something the capital program will talk later.

two years ago we talked about a tax increase fiscal year 19 and then we said put it off to 20 and again putting it on but that was expected to be 1.6 cents I believe.

Thank you very much.

somewhere of those $637K.

By full list for something that does get pretty small and detailed, you can take that as possible.

We can do that.

We can provide full list.

Thank you for your attention and all your agreement.

So then, total at the bottom line, we see we're at $15 million and we're at 5.2%.

I guess because we started that pay scale early.

So with this change in differentiated rates, there is an amount, about 160,000, about 430 for general government is based on that, and the remainder is really gone, 5.4% increase.

effective January 4, 2020.

That is a $271,000 decrease in savings.

If that was on the expenditure category, it's really a seven plus.

We're also adding staffing in areas that were not added back for parks and recreation, based on recommendations of the recreation needs assessment, project managers relating to the capital improvements program, certainly other positions in the finance department, and all those other areas.

I would like to see with our comparable counties where our comparables are standing right now per 1,000 population where we are in terms of general government.

Those three are listed down there.

And could you tell me what are those intelligence managers?

If I was to be with Trevor or if I see Mike Slender in the back of the audience, if you would like to speak to that question,

Helps us make better decisions.

Who's doing it currently, Mike?

That's right.

Yes, for the data, for the data, right.

So in total, that would be 27.25 positions.

Wasn't it about 30?

We have them back where we started.

Just a memory.

Colors in the millions.

Which one is six positions headed?

Yes, it helps to picture it because I don't have the full information of the ones already on this slide.

Page 61 is the chart that laid down every single change including what would have already been done.

I'm sorry, there was one question out of my mind.

So this would be an increase in 20 if all were through to 779.39 FTEs.

How many of the ones that we've done out of the 20, I think you said 27, are social services?

That would be six Medicaid positions and then there is the additional position up there for the assistant director of the Department of Social Services.

Each one of these positions will have the opportunity to talk in great detail when you get to that department.

I don't have any more comments on kind of the agencies as a whole, unless there's any questions.

Nice reminder for everyone.

With that, I will transition, unless there's any questions, I'll transition to Lori who's going to talk more about some of the partnerships that's in.

It's included in the 2.9.

It's included in the 2.9.

So I just wanted to share that with you.

Right.

I want to thank them for the extra effort they were doing.

Do you have an observation?

Has the city committed to the TOW, million dollars or so, in terms of voting on it and approving it?

Part of the proposed budget that they're considering.

Formally, that would be easy to agree with.

Yes, sir.

We're going to have a different person managing this for each of the web sessions.

I think we have it started on the website right now.

We can add some and if you have questions that you're hearing and you want to get them to us to make sure we get it out there please share them with us and we'll make sure we get the questions that you're hearing out there on the

and the third one is to go through the CIP, the need for cash flow, and the debt to equity ratios or balance.

Okay, and now she's going on to the list of follow-ups.

Ann, you had a question about some doctor's offices, can you?

That's just the shift of ownership and whether we're still collecting property tax on those that are available to the rest of the ownership.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

And then there was a question about payment and taxes and that we, there were some further questions and information you needed.

That's the same issue.

Did you get the answer you needed?

I did.

Thank you.

and then Rick had a question and there was some further discussion about what is the tipping point for the general fund fund balance.

We're good.

And Liz, you had a question about RSWA wanting to find out about funding reserves for purchasing property.

Okay.

And then you wanted a full list of those one-time expenditures for FY20, for fiscal year 20.

It flew over 600,000.

And he was going to work on that.

So just be judicious about how you spend your time if it's not readily available.

There will be some caveats to this, certainly the level of service for any service a locality chooses to use.

They look at it and think it's the, and we're really not comparing it almost all the time.

It will be caveats.

But if we remember that we shrank like 75 local government employees, which is around, that's a pretty big number, because of the recession, even with the time and security of jobs and things like that.

Well, the other thing is also a lot of governments in the decade don't operate the same way.

Mr. Richardson, do you have anything else that you'd like to add?

I do not.

Did you want to take a short break?

I haven't even got a clue yet

We are now welcoming our school board chair, Mr. Gianno Alcaro, and our vice chair, Mr. Grant Page, to go over the 19-20 school board's funding request.

Page at this point.

And now the numbers.

As a note of clarification, this benefit is also extended to local government employees as well.

We can lift our community.

Thank you for your time, and I'm sure we'll be glad to take any questions.

Who would like to start?

The one thing that I was a little curious when you were talking about opening up or reducing the cost of tuition for folks that are outside

I believe that that was available to them at the higher, at the same price level that it was at $5,400.

So I'd like to be able to retain those teachers.

A thousand.

And then half that for the second.

So is that all over Virginia, or are you kicking out a specific group of tours?

But we often use, I consider them to be

what are we doing wrong that all these other places in Virginia aren't doing better?

A lot of those things have gone by the wayside over the past several years and my intention is to bring them back so that students are exposed to the full curriculum.

Do you think it's really about not teaching to the test so that you're not necessarily getting a course education, you're just not being taught to the test?

But we can, and we will.

And so what does that, in order to teach for the standards, what kind of changes does that require you to do?

When you see the same thing with our special education students, 49% really means that they have very little exposure to grade level curriculum.

And so in order to make this better, you're not looking at more resources, you're looking at just a change.

Who else has questions or comments?

They do both.

Sorry, Ned.

It used to be we only had a couple of schools that had the advantage of that.

The parents are kind of demanding it.

Now I believe I know the answer, but I would like to hear the explanation.

That's a project we're working on.

And just explain a little bit because I think if somebody was listening

We know what you're talking about, but I don't think the public actually knows.

The first school pilot program of the child finds the need where maybe a housing situation changes and it would require them to move from one school to another to keep them in the first school that they've started in and keep some continuity and consistency.

But we will when we start to build out that system.

Well it is amazing to have a twin city and county that go back and forth and certainly Greenbrier would be

There were a handful of kids, to your point, there were a handful of kids that moved from one school to another and then back again.

I just have one more question.

We're in good shape.

Just, we haven't targeted it yet, but we are concerned that some hard to fill areas like light food services could, we could increase their pay if we have additional revenue.

Okay.

And there are metrics that are tied to those as well.

Well, it's true that we should be working together and we are partners in this.

I will say the way you laid out the descriptions and changes is very helpful, very comprehensible.

Thank you for having me.

We're planning to bring to you yesterday that we would like to... We don't want to do one of them today.

It would be a little tight, I know what board.

It is a short item.

Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to keep the closed meeting here once the motion is read.

We'll, I suppose, step outside.

I move that the board go into closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2711A of the Code of Virginia, and so section 7 consult with legal counsel and briefing by staff members pertaining to actual litigation between the board and the Charlottesville city council regarding the Ragged Mountain Reservoir for consultation or briefing in open meeting

Mr. Dill?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Mr. Duranda?

Yes.

on the left.