Christiansburg held a budget work session for the town council on Friday, with the Mayor remaining absent as he recovers from surgery and Vice Mayor Brad Stipes presiding. Pet projects and pet peeves came to the surface before the meeting ended.
A story by Roanoke Times reporter Lerone Graham sums it up pretty well, and a video of the meeting is available at myvaresource.com. (No, there wasn't discussion about including microphones for each council member or the town taping and broadcasting public meetings in these budget discussions.)
Handouts were provided and some numbers had already changed from when the documents were printed. The total proposed budget is just over $36 million, and includes pulling over a half million from savings, a one-time half million bequeath from a late-citizen, about $200,000 in step-increases to qualified employees, and the Full-Monty on the expanded BT bus service (giving council the flexibility to modify yet know funding is included).
The only fee increases were passing water/sewer/garbage rate increases charged by regional operators on to town customers and a review of zoning and building fees. Those fees do not currently cover the town's actual costs and haven't been adjusted since before the first town manager (John Lemley) retired more than a decade ago.
Budget items that stirred lively conversation among council members were related to possibly extending public transportation per a recent Blacksburg Transit proposal, town employee salary step-increases, and tourism funding.
When Councilman Wade wanted the aquatic center debt service included in that budget (to show full costs associated with that asset), Councilman Barber got testy. Wade wasn't happy about an opening date for that facility which kept extending out without a promised completion date.
Councilman Vanhoozier asked where the total for the town savings account was shown within the budget, and how much each earmarked future need had set aside. That was followed by references to multiple pages within the budget and discussion about the auditors saying not to include this until it was spent, and so became an expense (or allocation).
None of the council members seemed excited about running in the red and tapping savings, relying on best guesses for aquatic center expenses and revenues -- yet it's clear those expenses will be close to what's being projected, while the revenues will depend upon the opening date.
Pop quiz: #1 - Will taking $500,000 from the town's reserved, non-allocated funds be blamed on a) the aquatic center, b) expanded transportation options, c) employee wage increases of any kind, d) no one else bequeathing the town a chunk of change or e) all of the above? # 2 - Will any future tax increase, even property reassesssments with the tax rate left unchanged, be due to a) the aquatic center, b) expanded transportation options, c) employee wage increases of any kind, d) no one else bequeathing the town a chunk of change or e) all of the above?
Vice Mayor Stipes pointed out several times these were the types of issues the Mayor wanted to discuss at a planning retreat, with the Mayor asking for about $12,000 to be placed in the budget for that. This implies it won't occur locally where citizens can pop in and listen to the conversation, or that a high-dollar facilitator-slash-consultant is being considered.
Most council members didn't seem to grasp the one-time opportunity to expand public transportation with 80% of the costs covered by non-local funding grants nor how it could strengthen the usage and revenue growth of the aquatic center. It could also have a positive effect on property transfers or rental vacancy rates as this access could be a marketing tool. They also missed how this could help commerce in general, making shopping and dining options easier, cheaper and more accessible -- and guess what? These both would help increase the town's revenues without any tax increases.
It became obvious that some council members had never, ever used any transportation other than personal autos, perhaps golf carts and maybe an occasional airplane ride. Many seemed oblivious to the fact that gas prices will certainly continue to creep (or shoot) up again.
Councilman Showalter finally got the name of the chamber's president and CEO correct, yet the full council seemed intent on revisions to the Tourism Development Council contract terms being a deal breaker -- with the TDC supposedly being the bad-guy. More on that to follow. In the meantime, council may want to take note of another article in Saturday's News Messenger which highlighted Blacksburg's Town Council problems with unhappy lodging and restaurant owners -- if these are the businesses that bring in the lion's share of your revenues, you do not want unhappy campers.