Central Virginia
Greene County
Board Special Meeting and Budget Workshop 3/3/2026
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Board Special Meeting and Budget Workshop
3/3/2026
1. Call to Order-Special Meeting
▶︎
4:58
2. Pledge of Allegiance; Moment of Silence
▶︎
6:07
3. Action Item
▶︎
6:53
a. Approve resolution to submit the bi-directional antenna project for Community Project Funding for FY2027 - Terry Beigie, Grant Writer
Memo and Resolution.pdf
b. Approve resolution to submit water main improvements to Community Project Funding for FY2027 - Terry Beigie, Grant Writer
030326 Memo and Resolution.pdf
c. Approve resolution to submit the purchase of a heavy duty lift for the Vehicle Maintenance Facility to FY2027 Community Project Funding - Terry Beigie, Grant Writer
Memo and resolution.pdf
d. Approve resolution to submit the renovation of the old EMS building for Community Project Funding for FY2027 - Terry Beigie, Grant Writer
Memo & Resolution.pdf
4. Adjourn Special Meeting
▶︎
13:22
5. Call to Order - Budget Workshop
▶︎
13:45
6. Budget Presentation - Cathy Schafrik, County Administrator
▶︎
13:50
a. FY 2027 Budget Presentation
Presentation.pdf
7. Discussion of Budget with Commonwealth's Attorney Win Consolvo
▶︎
1:01:06
8. Discussion of Budget with Commissioner of Revenue Kim Tate
▶︎
1:03:51
9. School Board budget presentation - Dr. Andrea Whitmarsh, School Superintendent
▶︎
1:06:47
a. FY 2027 School Board Budget Presentation
Presentation.pdf
10. Discussion of Budget with Sheriff Steve Smith and Sheriff's Office
▶︎
1:38:04
11. Discussion of Budget with Treasurer Dawn Lotts Marshall
▶︎
1:44:08
a. FY 2027 Treasurer Presentation
Presentation.pdf
12. General budget discussion
▶︎
2:11:17
13. Adjourn Workshop
▶︎
2:20:03
1. Call to Order-Special Meeting
SPEAKER_03
00:04:58
Hi, buddy.
00:05:06
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_14
00:05:18
Good evening, everyone.
00:05:19
I'd like to call a special meeting of the Greene County Board of Supervisors to order.
00:05:25
Before we get started, I would like to take a moment to recognize that Ms. Durer, this is her first night back.
00:05:32
We have appointed her to fill the vacancy till November, I believe it is.
00:05:37
And because we love her so much, we're just going to throw her right into the fire.
00:05:41
First night back.
00:05:42
She basically had a couple meetings off, but now she's got to pay for that, right?
00:05:46
Would you like to say anything?
SPEAKER_00
00:05:48
It's good to be back.
00:05:50
I appreciate all the support that the body has given me.
00:05:53
It's been a very tough year, I can warn you all now.
SPEAKER_14
00:05:57
Very good, very good, fair enough.
00:06:00
So thank you for serving and we are eagerly awaiting us all getting back to work.
2. Pledge of Allegiance; Moment of Silence
SPEAKER_14
00:06:07
First on the agenda, I would like to, as it's customary that we do a pledge of stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and follow it with a moment of silence.
SPEAKER_13
00:06:14
I pledge allegiance to the
SPEAKER_14
00:06:51
Okay.
3. Action Item
SPEAKER_14
00:06:53
Before we get into our budget workshop, we have some housekeeping items to take care of.
00:06:58
So we're going to move to number three.
00:07:00
We have four resolutions under action item.
00:07:04
Ms. Terry, there you are.
00:07:06
We'll present what they all mean to us.
00:07:10
Welcome.
SPEAKER_08
00:07:11
Great to meet tonight for the special meeting.
00:07:13
I think when I was here last week, I told you they would probably give me about a week.
00:07:17
And I got the notification on Thursday that they're due this Thursday.
00:07:22
So I was right on the money there.
00:07:25
So we discussed some projects that you wanted me to submit applications for.
00:07:31
So I'm going to be doing that in the next few days.
00:07:33
We must have resolutions from the board to be able to submit.
00:07:37
So that's why we're having a special meeting tonight.
SPEAKER_09
00:07:38
Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_08
00:07:40
The first one is the bi-directional antennas for the schools, as we discussed at the last meeting.
00:07:46
These are necessary because of the construction of the schools.
00:07:52
really hinder radio, cell phone usage, whatnot in the schools and make it very dangerous for responders as much as the school community itself in an emergency situation, especially getting in touch back with dispatch or dispatch getting in touch with them.
00:08:05
I think our coverage is around 70% in these buildings, some a little bit more than others, but we just spent five and a half million dollars on a emergency radio project.
00:08:17
We need to pick that up there.
00:08:19
those estimated costs a million dollars for that.
00:08:24
There would be no match for that one.
00:08:29
The other one, the water main improvements would be the same one that we just received the money for from Veneman's office.
00:08:36
It's a 20% match and we'd be asking for about the same amount again for further improvements in Stanardsville mains.
00:08:42
Then the other one is for the purchase of a heavy duty lip for vehicle maintenance facility.
00:08:48
I expect there to be about a 20-25% match on that one.
00:08:53
It's $150,000.
00:08:53
And then the final one is the renovation of the old rescue squad in mess building to move the EOC from its current location
00:09:05
in the new building because it is too small, is woefully too small for any large-scale emergency.
00:09:11
Over to this building, because it is a lot bigger room for a meeting room in it, that would make more sense.
00:09:18
But it needs a lot of renovations.
00:09:20
Foundation needs to be repaired.
00:09:22
The roof needs to be repaired.
00:09:23
It needs electrical, plumbing, waterproofing, and moving administrative offices for EMS over.
00:09:32
We are already outgrowing our
00:09:34
building that we spent $2.5 million on in 2021.
00:09:37
So we need to have space better.
00:09:42
But it's right there on the same property.
00:09:43
It makes sense.
00:09:43
There's also the garage underneath for them to be able to park ambulances.
00:09:48
And the goal is to maybe use additional space for other county departments.
00:09:54
as needed.
00:09:55
So I'm here tonight asking if you would approve these resolutions so that I may submit to the grants.
SPEAKER_14
00:10:03
Okay, what I'd like to do, I'll just call one out, see if there's discussion, and then we'll make a motion and vote.
00:10:10
So A would be the first one, which is for the bi-directional antenna.
00:10:13
Are there any questions for Terry?
00:10:18
Do I have a motion?
SPEAKER_12
00:10:20
Sure.
00:10:20
I move that we approve a resolution allowing the county administrator to submit an application for community project funding for FY 2027 for the bi-directional antenna by the March 5, 2026 due date.
00:10:33
Okay.
00:10:34
Do I have a second?
SPEAKER_10
00:10:35
I'll second.
SPEAKER_14
00:10:36
Okay.
00:10:36
We have a motion and a second to approve the resolution for the bi-directional antenna.
00:10:40
Roll call vote.
00:10:41
Ms. Durr?
00:10:42
Aye.
SPEAKER_14
00:10:43
Mr. Goolsbee?
00:10:43
Aye.
00:10:44
Mr. Lamb?
00:10:44
Aye.
00:10:45
Mr. Hartung?
00:10:45
Aye.
00:10:46
And the chair votes aye.
00:10:47
Item B, approved resolution to submit water main improvements.
00:10:50
Any questions?
00:10:53
Any discussion?
SPEAKER_13
00:10:54
Looking for a motion.
00:10:57
Approved resolution to submit water main improvements to the community project funding for FY 2027.
00:11:05
from Ms. Terry Biggett, the grant writer.
SPEAKER_14
00:11:09
Yes.
00:11:10
OK. Is there a second?
SPEAKER_03
00:11:11
I second.
SPEAKER_14
00:11:12
OK. We have a motion and a second.
00:11:13
Roll call vote.
00:11:14
Ms. Dura?
SPEAKER_03
00:11:15
Aye.
SPEAKER_14
00:11:15
Mr. Goolsbee?
00:11:16
Aye.
00:11:16
Mr. Lamb?
00:11:17
Aye.
00:11:17
Mr. Hartung?
00:11:18
Aye.
00:11:18
And the chair votes aye.
00:11:20
C, approve resolution to submit for the purchase of a heavy duty lift at vehicle maintenance.
00:11:25
Any questions?
SPEAKER_02
00:11:27
Questions on that?
SPEAKER_14
00:11:29
OK. Do I have a motion?
SPEAKER_12
00:11:31
I move that we approve a resolution allowing the county administrator to submit an application for the community project funding for FY 2027 for the purchase of a heavy duty lift by the March 5, 2026 due date.
SPEAKER_14
00:11:42
Is there a second?
00:11:44
Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the resolution to purchase, to submit application to try to purchase a heavy duty lift.
00:11:51
Roll call vote.
00:11:53
Ms. Dura?
00:11:53
Aye.
00:11:54
Mr. Goolsbee?
00:11:54
Aye.
00:11:55
Mr. Lamb?
00:11:55
Aye.
00:11:56
Mr. Hartung?
00:11:56
Aye.
00:11:57
And the chair votes aye.
00:11:58
D. Approve resolution to submit the renovation of the old EMS building for community project funding.
00:12:04
Any discussion?
SPEAKER_13
00:12:07
Do we know approximately about how much that was going to cost?
00:12:12
700 pounds.
00:12:15
So are they going to take like a special I-Beam underneath for the foundation to raise it?
SPEAKER_08
00:12:22
We've had them come out to give us an estimate of the cost of fixing the foundation, yeah.
SPEAKER_13
00:12:26
I mean, because the rescue squads that we have now are too tall to go in and out.
SPEAKER_08
00:12:34
What do you mean?
00:12:35
No, the ambulance does fit as far as that goes on the one side.
SPEAKER_12
00:12:40
All right, thank you.
SPEAKER_08
00:12:41
Not both of them, but on one.
SPEAKER_12
00:12:43
And did you say there was a match?
00:12:45
There was supposed to be a 25%.
00:12:48
25%.
SPEAKER_14
00:12:48
Thank you.
00:12:50
Other comments or questions?
00:12:52
Looking for a motion?
00:12:54
So moved.
SPEAKER_12
00:12:56
I move that we approve resolution allowing the county administrator to submit an application for community project funding for FY 2027 renovation to the old EMS building by the March 5, 2026 due date.
SPEAKER_14
00:13:10
Second.
00:13:10
Okay.
00:13:10
I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution.
00:13:14
Roll call vote.
00:13:14
Mr. Lamb.
00:13:15
Aye.
00:13:15
Mr. Hartung.
00:13:16
Aye.
00:13:16
Mr. Goolsbee.
00:13:17
Aye.
00:13:17
Ms. Durer.
SPEAKER_08
00:13:18
Aye.
SPEAKER_14
00:13:18
And the chair votes aye.
SPEAKER_08
00:13:20
Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_14
00:13:20
Thank you.
00:13:21
Thank you.
4. Adjourn Special Meeting
SPEAKER_14
00:13:22
Mr. Goolsbee, can you make a motion to adjourn a special meeting?
SPEAKER_02
00:13:26
I get a motion to adjourn this special meeting.
SPEAKER_14
00:13:29
OK, is there a second?
00:13:30
I second.
00:13:30
OK, we have a motion and a second to adjourn this special meeting and go into workshop.
00:13:34
Roll call vote.
00:13:35
Mr. Lamb?
00:13:36
Aye.
00:13:36
Mr. Hartung?
00:13:37
Aye.
00:13:37
Mr. Goolsbee?
00:13:38
Aye.
00:13:38
Ms. Durer?
00:13:39
Aye.
00:13:39
And the chair votes aye.
00:13:41
All right.
00:13:42
Well, we got that done.
00:13:43
So now we're ready for our workshop.
5. Call to Order - Budget Workshop
SPEAKER_14
00:13:45
So we'll start with Ms. Shaffre for budget presentation.
6. Budget Presentation - Cathy Schafrik, County Administrator
SPEAKER_03
00:13:50
All right.
SPEAKER_04
00:13:57
Good, I guess it's afternoon, evening, and that's it.
00:14:02
Happy to present this, get this budget process kicked off.
00:14:07
And I just want to take a second to acknowledge all the work that's gone into it so far, which is not even half of the work that still has to be done.
00:14:15
So I appreciate everything the board's going to have to do as we have the right timeframe just in the next couple months to get a lot of decisions made and a lot of work done.
00:14:26
I mean, even routine budgets are a lot of work and
00:14:30
Routine budgets are kind of the exception, not the rule.
00:14:33
And this is definitely not a routine budget.
00:14:36
The one I'm presenting today is the compilation of all the requests that we've received with staff's first review of it.
00:14:45
but most of the decisions you know you guys have the wonderful privilege and wonderful burden of having to make those policy decisions and you know with a lot of community input so that's what we'll be doing for the next few weeks so you know when you say March Madness you may think of basketball but pretty much it's going to be a budget budget for all of us
00:15:10
The theme of this budget is managing through austerity, which you see at the top of my slides.
00:15:22
Moving on, I do have a lot of slides, but I'll go through them quickly.
00:15:26
This is just our obligation to create a balanced budget.
00:15:30
What you see in front of you is balanced, but it's never going to be the same budget.
00:15:37
You're always going to be making lots of good changes, and you'll end up with a balanced budget at the end of it.
00:15:44
We also have a challenge with the Dillon Rule.
00:15:48
I'm not going to read this slide, but basically,
00:15:52
What the dental world means is you only, we as localities, only have the powers expressively granted to us by the state.
00:16:01
So we can't make up resources of revenue.
00:16:03
We are really restricted and are even changing the type of work we do.
00:16:11
We still have regulatory responsibilities, whether the state funds them or not.
00:16:16
And I'll speak about that a little bit more.
00:16:19
The benefits of local government, you know, we really, the good thing about local government is it's the most responsive to the needs of
00:16:29
of citizens.
00:16:30
And the basic amenities that you really need, water, sanitation, fire, police, citizen protection, all that stuff is done at the local level of schools.
00:16:42
And the delivery of those services is, we all live in these communities that we're serving.
00:16:49
So that's personally why I love local government.
00:16:53
We do perform regulatory functions, zoning land use policies,
00:16:59
building codes, et cetera, et cetera.
00:17:02
So this is the challenge.
00:17:05
We've got all these competing budget parties, limited resources.
00:17:10
So it's like a basket of puppies where you have to pick two when you want to take them all, but you can't.
00:17:16
So going, you know, but we have to have some kind of framework to make a decision.
00:17:21
So these are some of the guiding principles that we're using.
00:17:24
We're only going to use one-time sources of funds, one-time expenditures.
00:17:30
Any ongoing expenses have to have an ongoing source of revenue.
00:17:34
We do have emergency needs that can be funded with contingency rather than all departments.
00:17:40
We did have to cut our contingency budget way back to be able to balance this budget, so that might be something you want to look at.
00:17:47
And we used a modified zero-based budgeting that is when we got the requests, which you do all have the original requests,
00:17:55
We looked at everything, not just the new stuff.
00:17:58
We looked at the entire budget to see what we could, and you'll see little changes where some stuff was brought up, some stuff was brought down, but we did have to put in inflationary impacts.
00:18:11
Those are small, you know, like contractually obligated or just to be able to, you know, inflation's hitting.
00:18:19
We're still buying the same.
00:18:21
We're still buying all the same stuff.
00:18:22
Everybody else is buying it.
00:18:24
Everything costs more.
00:18:26
So moving on, you know, this is just a little sampling of the array of services that we have.
00:18:35
We have lots of different populations that we serve.
00:18:39
So just throwing in some pictures so you could see that.
00:18:45
Taxpayers always want to know what am I going to get from local government?
00:18:49
Paying all these taxes, whatever I get, you get great schools, you get safe and healthy communities, you get justice.
00:18:57
you get recreational opportunities.
00:18:59
That's just a high level view.
00:19:02
There's lots of things that people get.
00:19:07
And, but what we also want to look at is the level of service.
00:19:10
You can have basically like criminals on the bottom here, like you're basically not fulfilling what the state has told us we have to do in terms of service.
00:19:21
And then there's the, you know, platinum highest level.
00:19:25
We're always trying to be somewhere in the middle.
00:19:26
And it may be different.
00:19:29
For public safety agencies, it may be we put more of the things we desire in there.
00:19:34
And for everybody else, we're doing just more basic or expected.
00:19:38
We're just kind of shooting for the middle.
00:19:40
And that's where we need to get the priorities of the board, particularly in the community.
00:19:47
And we've got populations increasing.
00:19:51
It's not going up as dramatically as some of the counties around us.
00:19:56
I think Louisa has the highest population growth right now, but it's still going up.
00:20:03
And all of those are people who need services.
00:20:04
We have challenges.
00:20:06
We've got
00:20:07
all kinds of pressures that make uncertainty in this budget process.
00:20:12
Because today is March 3rd, 2026.
00:20:15
We're talking about approving a budget that's going to go through June 30th, 2027, which is 18 months from now.
00:20:27
Or not 18 months, it's more like 15 months.
00:20:29
But you're making decisions way into the future, and that's hard.
00:20:35
So we got to leave ourselves a little bit of flexibility, but you know, we can manage through a lot of this uncertainty.
00:20:44
We have, you know, we do get money from the federal and state governments, but they were seeing more and more devolution or they're pushing down some of those costs.
00:20:55
So, for example, the big drivers in this budget is the state support for schools has decreased.
00:21:01
They changed the LCI, which is the local composite index, which essentially says, hey, Greene, you can afford to pay more for schools, so we're going to give you less.
00:21:11
We have Children's Services Act calculations.
00:21:16
The state's not sharing in as much of those costs, which we're required to provide.
00:21:22
And that's going to increase what we have to pay by $230,000.
00:21:27
and we also have issues with the compensation board.
00:21:31
We have many, and I have more slides on that, but they don't pay 100% of those constitutional staff salaries.
00:21:39
So the locality chips in money for even those comp board funded positions, in addition to the locally funded positions.
00:21:48
So as an example, to drill in that,
00:21:52
that last point a little bit more.
00:21:56
These are the constitutional officers that we have.
00:21:59
They are funded from the state comp board.
00:22:03
and their staffs.
00:22:05
But we do have to supplement them with local funds.
00:22:08
So as an example, there are 16 staff in the sheriff's office that are partially funded.
00:22:13
It's about 70 percent of their salaries are funded by the state.
00:22:17
And then the county pays 30 percent for those 16.
00:22:21
And then there's 16 other deputy positions that are wholly locally funded.
00:22:26
100 percent funded by the locality.
00:22:31
We have
00:22:33
The issue with the state compensation board in the last few years is, one, I've already talked about the underfunding.
00:22:40
And it's not like we can say we're not going to do law enforcement.
00:22:43
We have to do law enforcement because of the Dylan role and other requirements from the state, as I mentioned.
00:22:50
They have very rigid staffing and funding formulas.
00:22:53
So those staffing formulas don't always represent the local reality.
00:22:58
So you may say, why is the comp board only funding 16 and 32 positions?
00:23:02
it's, you know, they're not really meant to cover all of it.
00:23:07
And it gets also to level of service.
00:23:09
Their level of service may be like just barely doing what we have to do.
00:23:13
And as a community, we've decided that it's important as we're gonna do more.
00:23:17
We also have unpredictable budget outcomes.
00:23:22
The last couple of years, you know, they may make a decision late in the process because they have funding available.
00:23:30
or you know they can also say we don't have enough funding available so we get these things like in April and it's really difficult to deal with any any information or changes that come up at that that late in the game.
00:23:46
Right now we have 36 comp board funded positions that
00:23:49
those positions are, you know, fully funding those positions is $2.8 million.
00:23:55
The state pays about 2.1, which is about 73, almost 74% in the county pays the rest.
00:24:02
So when the comp board does make its decision to increase the funding for their comp board positions, all they're doing is closing that gap because they're not fully funding them anyway.
00:24:14
Does that make sense?
00:24:15
So you can see, you know, like, so maybe instead of the state paying 74, if they add money to the locality, maybe now they're paying 80 percent.
00:24:26
But they're really they're not closing the gap to pay 100 percent.
00:24:34
And I only bring that up because no doubt we'll get something from the comp board that we'll have to revisit that discussion to see what they're doing.
00:24:41
So these are the major themes.
00:24:43
We've got aging infrastructure.
00:24:45
We all know why we have to address this.
00:24:48
Really austerity.
00:24:49
So there were lots of great things that I mean,
00:24:51
Staff, they just want, they want to help.
00:24:54
They want to do everything to the best of their ability.
00:24:58
They want everything to be as nice as possible for residents, but being able to, this is not the environment to expand programs.
00:25:06
Rural preservation, you know, that's not something where they're going to go buy up all this farmland, but we do have land use and I'll talk about that in a minute.
00:25:16
We have economic development.
00:25:19
One question that most people are going to have during this budget process is, how can we generate more revenue within the confines that the state allows us to?
00:25:32
How can we reduce taxes?
00:25:34
It's really going to come down to economic development and commercial development.
00:25:38
We only have 6% of the county that is designated for development, that type of development.
00:25:49
and we need to maximize that six percent to its best you know to be as efficient as possible to get that revenue because what commercial entities pay and taxes and what they demand and services so what they do to our budget is much more favorable to the budget than when we add in more residents.
00:26:09
Residents have kids that need to be educated they're the ones calling 9-1-1
00:26:13
You know, like there's a lot of demand on it.
00:26:16
So if you're wondering why would commercial entities be willing to pay more in taxes than they may receive, you know, in actual services, it's because they want to locate in places where we have good schools, where we have good communities.
00:26:33
So
00:26:34
It's the bar, you know, they'll actually seek out those places.
00:26:38
And as we get more of that development that we're trying to get, it will benefit them as well as us because we'll be able to lower taxes.
00:26:48
So I guess I kind of jumped the gun, but economic development really, it really does require safety.
00:26:55
It requires good schools, infrastructure, which we are addressing through the water projects that are moving forward and being able to have those available commercial parcels for them to go.
00:27:08
And then, you know, on the other end of the scale, we reserve rural aspects by continuing to support land use.
00:27:17
that is deferred revenues annually of 1.5, almost $1.6 million.
00:27:26
So the highlights of the budget, so just get into the, you know,
00:27:30
The budget increases, we did find almost 400,000 in agency reductions when we go through that process of looking at everybody's budget and seeing what all the requirements are.
00:27:43
The budget is balanced, but it is, and I'm going to talk a lot more about this in the next few slides, but we do have a proposed real estate tax increase of nine cents.
00:27:57
that would raise $2.88 million, which that entire nine cents would be dedicated to the schools.
00:28:06
We have a 4% increase in compensation for county employees built in that 4% is 3% for COLA, 1% to progress through the range.
00:28:16
So 3% is just to keep what you're making now equal to, you know, the previous year, but you also need to move through the range otherwise,
00:28:26
after 30 years, you shouldn't be at the beginning of the range.
00:28:30
Schools have built in 5% compensation in their budget.
00:28:34
And this does ensure continuity of operations for all the departments.
00:28:41
We have a lot of slides that are going to say pretty much the same thing.
00:28:47
But this just shows you the split between the budget
00:28:52
When we have that general fund budget for the county, we are not putting in there that 3.93%, which is a pass-through for the locally administered project that we're doing, the Route 670 project, because that is money that's coming to the county so that we can pay for that.
00:29:12
So we can't use it for anything else.
00:29:15
And the general fund transfers to schools if we did
00:29:23
give them that $2.88 million.
00:29:26
So we went ahead just so you could see what that would look like.
00:29:29
That would increase the general fund transfer to them to $22.4 million.
00:29:37
And they are here to talk a lot more about their process and everything that has come to pass very recently.
00:29:47
I was here in January to do a budget workshop.
00:29:50
We were estimating at the time
00:29:52
schools were estimating $2 to $3 million impact.
00:29:55
As information came in, it ended up being a $4.2 million impact, which you might have seen if you saw what the school board adopted as their request to send to us on last Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday.
00:30:17
This is just like an at-a-glance.
00:30:19
We have this in the citizen's guide that'll be out by Thursday.
00:30:24
This just gives you the highlight of what we're looking at in population, the real estate tax, county position.
00:30:32
These are the things that changed.
00:30:34
So I just have them summarized.
00:30:35
Again, doesn't include that past year funding.
00:30:40
This is the proposed advertised tax categories.
00:30:45
So you see the real estate and then the public service corporation, which is real estate for public service.
00:30:51
That's going up to 78 cents, but holding steady with personal property, which is at four and industrial machine tools has not changed.
00:31:01
And then just so you know, a penny on the tax rate is 319,871.
00:31:08
So I've got a huge slide that this is that
00:31:11
make it easier for us to find.
00:31:15
So nine cents, what does that mean?
00:31:17
So if you have a house, just as an example, if your house is worth, or you know, your house assessment is $350,000, that's an annual increase of $315.
00:31:27
So if you're paying it as part of your mortgage, that's going to be an increase of $26.25 a month.
00:31:33
$500,000, you can see $4.50 a year.
00:31:40
If I take that $4.50 divided by 12, that's $37.50 a month.
00:31:45
added if you're paying, as an example, many people pay that as part of a mortgage.
00:31:50
And if you have a $650,000 house, and then you can see some examples there for commercial, it's the same rate.
00:31:56
So it's just a few other examples of how that math works.
00:32:03
You've got, again, this is the big slide that has $319,871 for what it is.
00:32:10
Now, this is not a reassessment year.
00:32:12
Last year was.
00:32:13
We do it every two years.
00:32:15
That means that there's no change to the real estate tax base unless you are building onto your property somehow.
00:32:25
And we pick that up when you apply for the permits to do that, like finishing in a basement or adding a big shed or 80, you know, like whatever it is that you think that might change your assessed value.
00:32:42
And of course, if we're adding new stock, so as a new house is built, that also gets added to the base.
00:32:48
But I'm just saying, if you already have an assessment, it's not changing with shares.
00:32:52
It's what it was last year.
00:32:54
This is just a pie chart to show you where it comes from.
00:32:58
And you can see why are we talking about just the real estate tax?
00:33:01
Why do we only, you know, why do we calculate the penny?
00:33:04
You know, the blue section of pie is representing
00:33:12
the biggest piece of revenue that comes in.
00:33:14
That comes in from real estate tax.
00:33:16
The orange piece of pie is personal property tax, so on vehicles.
00:33:21
And then you see other pieces apply, other local taxes.
00:33:24
That yellow is a compilation of a whole bunch of different ones.
00:33:29
So it's easier to see on this chart.
00:33:33
So you can see how much money is coming in from those other
00:33:38
There's different caregivers.
00:33:40
And we do get, as you can see there, a good amount of money from the federal government and the state.
00:33:49
We also have, this is just to give you an idea of what the taxable real estate values are.
00:33:59
And that's what gets, you know, we apply the tax rate to those.
00:34:02
So that just gives you an idea of how much money that represents.
00:34:09
Well, let me go back here.
00:34:11
So you will see it does change year to year.
00:34:13
So I just said that, you know, it's not a reassessment year.
00:34:16
So everybody stays flat, but people are always doing things to their houses and we're always building, you know, like there are new houses that are being built, particularly the big developments like Creekside, which is, you know, there's a lot of new houses that are coming online there.
00:34:33
So we do, as part of the budget, we do review all the fees because we want to look not just at what we're spending, but also what money we're taking in and making sure we're competitive.
00:34:46
Some fees may need to go down.
00:34:47
Some may need to go up.
00:34:51
But what we're doing is sinking everything so that we're looking at the rates at the same time to making decisions about the expenditures for those agencies and trying to balance the budget.
00:35:02
and make everything, all the rates change effective July 1.
00:35:06
It's a lot simpler to explain.
00:35:08
It doesn't feel like sometimes I say death by duck bite where it's like constant little changes.
00:35:14
It just feels more overwhelming than it is.
00:35:17
So very few, you know, this list is small, but it's also very, very little additional revenue.
00:35:26
So these were not revenue generating.
00:35:27
These were just right sizing or to make for more efficient operations.
00:35:32
So the minimum for the solid waste scale was $7 a vehicle, now it'll be $10.
00:35:40
And that's just based on analysis and work that's done at solid waste.
00:35:45
It's not a revenue generating, it's really more, you know, just to stay in line with what the market says it should be.
00:35:52
These detached residential structures, so these might be like
00:35:59
sheds that are built or something.
00:36:02
Those actually require a lot of inspections so we are increasing the minimum so that it more
00:36:13
is in line with how many times our inspectors have to go out there and look at those properties.
00:36:19
It's not a common, you know, like that category is not designed to raise revenue.
00:36:25
It's really just more to as we looked at every little fee and everything that needs to be examined.
00:36:32
That was one of the changes that we made.
00:36:35
The new resident inspection fees permits over 800 square feet are going to increase by $100.
00:36:43
And again, that's just based on the amount of work that it takes to actually do those inspections.
00:36:49
And water and sewer rates are requested to raise by 3% across the board.
00:36:57
So that will raise about $151,000.
00:37:01
And just as a reminder, all those water projects we're doing, all of that is fully funded by water and sewer rate payers, as well as what developers are paying to connect to the water system.
00:37:16
And that's the EDU fee, the connection fee, and that's $12,250.
00:37:24
And that's bringing in revenue as people are building new houses and connecting in.
00:37:32
We also have, you know, so that's where it comes from and this is where it goes.
00:37:37
So this is where we, we have the different disbursements going.
00:37:42
So as you see the yellow, pale yellow on the left, that's schools.
00:37:48
And then public safety is that lighter blue.
00:37:52
that's a big piece of pie.
00:37:54
So you see in line with the community's values and what they would like to see, the majority of the money is going to schools and public safety, which is the core function of a local government.
00:38:07
And then we have other requirements of things we have to do, smaller programs.
00:38:12
So you'll see parks and recreation, libraries, public works, health, community development, those types of things.
00:38:20
Those are the broader categories that we have.
00:38:25
We have, this just kind of shows you the county's budget versus the school's budget and they're very close.
00:38:35
We built in the increase of that $2.88 million for the public schools so you can see
00:38:45
what that would look like and of course that's you know really should be TBD and some because you guys still have to make that decision but because I'm presenting this as a balanced budget you need to see the actual number change the number accordingly since this isn't written in stone but I just wanted you to be able to see the perspective of that fifty three point four million dollars for public schools that county transfer would increase to twenty two point four million dollars
00:39:13
and also on the county budget side again doesn't include that pass-through funding of that 3.9 that the state is giving us as a pass-through so we can locally administer that 670 project.
00:39:29
and School Board obviously is here to talk a lot more, but they did adopt that budget on February 25th.
00:39:35
So that was just last week.
00:39:37
The total proposed operating budget is 55,581,929.
00:39:43
That's more than what you just saw in the previous slide.
00:39:48
That was 53 million.
00:39:50
And that's because 2.88 is not the 4.2 that they balance their budget request on.
00:39:57
So already we have reduced that budget.
00:40:00
And, you know, again, all my departments that turn things in, you know, the constitutional offices, we've all had, you know, nobody got their full request.
00:40:10
So I just say that too.
00:40:13
That FY 27 request is an increase from last year and they'll explain how that came to be.
SPEAKER_14
00:40:25
It's 4.892 or 4.2?
SPEAKER_04
00:40:30
Well, the 4.892 is the total request
00:40:35
That's not what they're asking for from the general fund because they have other ways that they are balancing.
00:40:42
So this was actually the discussion that we've had over today because it includes capital funding.
00:40:50
But the schools will be able to help answer that.
00:40:53
I just want to show you these different ways of looking at it because when you look at the charts and slicing and dicing, I just want to talk through all those big issues.
00:41:04
This is just another way of looking at it.
00:41:07
If you took a dollar and divided it up, you could see the general fund transfers to schools about 41.6% of all the general funds and our part's 58.4.
00:41:20
Here's another dollar that's divided up.
00:41:25
If you divide a dollar up,
00:41:26
Remember I was showing you on a piece of pie.
00:41:28
This is just another way of doing it.
00:41:30
That dollar shows public schools versus public safety is the next biggest category like we saw on the pie chart.
00:41:38
And then other departments is 15 million or 28.1% of the rest of the budget.
00:41:44
And that includes things like debt service and not water and sewer desk service, but debt service as it relates to other county programs.
00:41:55
This is just, again, a chart.
00:41:57
Sometimes it's easier to look at the chart, maybe the increases and decreases.
00:42:02
And this includes more than just a general fund because you can see water and sewer on there.
00:42:11
This is just our projected revenues.
00:42:18
And that doesn't include that $1.5 million from the school capital fund.
00:42:24
And then the expenditure requests that we have.
00:42:27
This is just, again, another cut of the data.
00:42:30
This is school operating budget.
00:42:36
We did little baby fund statements for the biggest
00:42:40
Cost, you know, the biggest programs.
00:42:44
So I'll go through this really fast.
00:42:47
I do have a footnote here because the state revenue, the state's still working on their budget.
00:42:53
So none of those are federal numbers.
00:42:55
And so that may change.
00:43:00
And this is the Children's Services Fund, CSA.
00:43:04
This just shows you the increase that we're going to have to put based on the changes already talked about.
00:43:11
And James is here to talk more about that.
00:43:14
This is the solid waste fund.
00:43:16
And we will have Tom Hutka to talk about water and sewer.
00:43:21
This is a water fund on Thursday.
00:43:23
We have the, my department's coming, well, yeah, we have constitutional officers, me and the schools today, and then other departments on Thursday.
00:43:34
Social Services Fund.
00:43:38
This just again shows you what's happening with the different revenues and expenditures.
00:43:47
Funded positions.
00:43:48
So we did in January talk in the workshop about looking at ways to fund some additional positions.
00:43:56
And I wanted to get some feedback from you all on that.
00:44:00
We did add
00:44:03
a new paramedic and a new EMT to the budget.
00:44:08
To do that, we went back into EMS's budget and looked at places where we could cut operating back.
00:44:15
And we were cutting back from the request, but so it wasn't so much against next year.
00:44:23
as much as what, you know, where we might be able to find some, curbing some of those expense and increases and a little bit, you know, you'll be able to see the detail and we'll get into more of that later, but it wasn't just added on top of all the inflationary increases.
00:44:40
Same thing's true with a deputy sheriff position.
00:44:43
They asked for four and you'll
00:44:48
We'll talk about that on the next slide, but we were able to find funding for one deputy share position.
00:44:54
And let me also say, it's not on here because they're not new positions, but we have three school resource officers that were funded from a grant.
00:45:04
That grant paid for half of this out.
00:45:07
So locally we paid half and the state paid half.
00:45:11
That grant ended this fiscal year.
00:45:15
So next fiscal year, we'll have to make up that other half of the difference, which is another one and a half worth of positions.
00:45:24
There is an opportunity that Ms. Biggie talked about at the last board meeting to ask for an extension of the grant, which we have applied for based on your resolution to go forward with that.
00:45:37
The feedback we got, there's no guarantee we're going to get it.
00:45:41
And the feedback we got was if we get anything, it will just be for the high school SRO.
00:45:48
So we do need to keep the budget in there for the other half of these positions so we can keep the school resource officers.
00:45:56
There's an office clerk that will be fully funded by the state so we had talked about that last time as being kind of the easy one to add because we're going to get fully reimbursed so even not giving it won't do anything to help us balance the budget.
00:46:13
We do have a receptionist, a half-time position to add to building inspections to help with, as you can see, lots of new buildings coming, lots of new requests for inspections, and there's a lot of administrative work that goes into that.
00:46:29
That will be a huge help and that will be fully paid for by inspection fee revenues.
00:46:35
So when you get an inspection, you have to pay a fee.
00:46:39
We're going to use those fees to pay for that at our fast position.
00:46:44
Those fees cannot be used for any other program.
00:46:49
So whether we give it, if we don't do this position, it doesn't do anything to help us balance the general fund budget because that money can't be used on any other program except building inspections.
00:47:01
Same thing's true with stormwater.
00:47:03
There's one
00:47:04
additional position that we've added and that's going to come from stormwater revenue.
00:47:11
Can't be used for anything else.
00:47:13
Can't be used to balance the rest of the budget.
00:47:16
I did add a fire coordinator to help with a lot of the administrative work that has to be done and we can talk through how we might best use that position.
00:47:27
Just feeling like there's been reports that have been done recommending that we add
00:47:34
a paid staff person to help.
00:47:37
In the past, I've requested a fire chief.
00:47:40
This is different.
00:47:41
This is a fire coordinator, somebody to help them with their training, help them, you know, we'll have to talk through what we can best use them for.
00:47:51
And then we have one automotive technician.
00:47:55
Last week this seemed like a good idea.
00:47:57
We cut back the fuel budget because every year we've been having excess in fuel.
00:48:02
Now that may not be such a great idea, but I couldn't have expected Saturday.
00:48:09
So it's, and I don't even know what the long-term perspective is.
00:48:13
So that's maybe something you want to look at, but that was funded by taking some savings in their operating budget for fuel.
00:48:21
to fund that.
00:48:22
And then there are we had discussed at the last workshop, budget workshop that was in January, adding a one full time family benefits specialist for DSS and a benefit specialist.
00:48:36
Those will be funded by 70% by the state.
00:48:39
So the county only has to pay 30% for these two very, very unique positions.
00:48:45
And then we added in one senior accountant for Water and Sewer, fully paid for by Water and Sewer funds.
00:48:52
Now the Water and Sewer department is taking over collecting payments from people.
00:49:00
There are a lot of people that come in and pay.
00:49:03
I'm sure, you know, which I can tell you all about that.
00:49:08
What that was like, it is a lot of extra work.
00:49:10
And just, you know, when you're handling that much money, it's the best practice to have two people there.
00:49:15
And, you know, people have to go to lunch.
00:49:18
People have, you know, they're off or they're sick or, you know, it's just
00:49:25
We only have two people that are doing that, plus there's other people in the office who can jump in and help.
00:49:30
It's a way of making sure that we're doing the best that we can with that money.
00:49:37
And that money is not going to be used to balance the general fund that would come out of water and sewer's budget.
00:49:43
These are all the positions that were not funded.
00:49:47
Park's position to be a community events supervisor, IT analyst, three of the deputy sheriff positions,
00:49:54
They also requested a full-time FOIA position.
00:49:58
They requested a front desk receptionist.
00:50:01
We had talked about at the workshop a tourism position that's not funded and a full-time building inspector, but there wasn't enough building inspection fees to cover a full-time building inspector, so we didn't add it.
00:50:15
NEMS had also asked for a full-time pharmacy position to deal with the state required
00:50:21
work that that's one of the devolution things that the state pushed down more mandates and how we manage pharmaceuticals.
00:50:30
So those 10 positions were not funded.
00:50:35
This is so capital improvement.
00:50:38
We've talked about the shared facility upgrade.
00:50:42
We would like to propose to borrow that money for five years to fund that, but we would like to start it now and we're going to talk more about it today.
00:50:52
I don't want to steal the sheriff's thunder.
00:50:56
but essentially the issue that you know I have a sheet for each one of these we've been talking about the ERP since I got here and the vehicle maintenance department those are for new vehicles water and sewer that's the second phase of the money for the reservoir and the water treatment plant so I put those in this fiscal year those could be the next fiscal year they're separate from the general fund money but
00:51:23
to get that started so we can really bring the project home because it's not going to get cheaper.
00:51:30
So here's a sheet for each one.
00:51:32
This is the facility upgrade we talked about.
00:51:34
The project costs are going to be about $900,000.
00:51:38
They were estimated to be.
00:51:40
That included $200,000 for a fence and a gate.
00:51:43
We already had $300,000.
00:51:46
We took the fence and the gate off, so that brought it down to seven.
00:51:50
We already had three.
00:51:51
So the estimate that they're asking for is that's how we got to the 400.
00:51:56
And this was something that was started with the building needs assessment that was done in 2019.
00:52:02
And if the work doesn't begin this spring, the vendors have said that they're not going to be available for us because they're going to work on data centers and some other stuff.
00:52:15
Also, we're worried about how the costs are increasing.
00:52:18
There's a lot of kids in here who've probably never seen a green screen or even know what that is.
00:52:26
But this is the system that we've had.
00:52:30
I've been trying really hard to figure out when it came to the county.
00:52:35
But asking employees, it started in 91, who said it was already here when they got here.
00:52:39
I don't know if this is for people.
00:52:45
No.
SPEAKER_09
00:52:45
1998.
SPEAKER_04
00:52:47
No, because it was being used for some other stuff.
00:52:50
It wasn't being fully used.
00:52:52
But Crystal, who started in, I think, 91, said that they were using it for other things.
SPEAKER_10
00:52:59
And we'll be able to know it today.
00:53:01
ASO was born in 1988.
SPEAKER_09
00:53:04
And then in 1998, we signed one review as we know it today.
SPEAKER_04
00:53:09
Yeah, I have a lot of staff that weren't even born then.
00:53:12
Actually, maybe some of you on the dais weren't born then.
00:53:20
So this program's old is the point.
00:53:23
And given the age and what's going on, we don't know how much longer it's going to be supported.
00:53:31
The initial amount of funding that we were asking for that 300, 200,000.
00:53:36
So we need to start the project by getting a consultant to come in and help us get the project going and do the requirements analysis.
00:53:44
And what I mean is you don't just run out and buy a system.
00:53:48
It's just like you wouldn't run out and buy a house without figuring out how many bedrooms do you need?
00:53:52
How big do you want the kitchen?
00:53:54
Do you want the bedroom on the first floor?
00:53:56
How many stories do you want?
00:53:58
There's a lot of things that aren't wrong answers, but we have to figure out what those are.
00:54:03
and it may be the BAI gets replaced with a system that's, you know, it's, there's specialty modules that the treasurer needs and commissioner of revenue needs in particular and maybe even schools, but we need to look at it all together and we need to look at, you know, what that does to our system architecture for IT.
00:54:26
So there's, and that's what we need the consultant to come in and help us with that requirement analysis.
00:54:31
and whatever money is left over would be applied to, you know, we'll have a better idea of what kind of system we're going to be looking for.
00:54:39
It could be that we integrate a few different systems.
00:54:43
It could be we find one system that does everything.
00:54:45
It's way too early to tell a lot of work.
00:54:49
A lot of work needs to be done, blueprinting our processes and and figuring all of that out.
00:54:56
And that's probably going to that's going to take the next year.
00:54:58
And we'll be able to use that money to do that.
00:55:02
to get all of that
00:55:13
You know, we can talk to vendors, but we're not going to pick anything.
00:55:19
The vehicle replacement program, that's 704,000.
00:55:22
This is the list of the vehicles, and we'll have an explanation when we do the staff reports on how we're doing the replacement program.
00:55:35
but basically we're kind of in a place now where it's about the same every year so that we're able to not have a year where we've got to buy like 20 buses or something so I think
00:55:46
or the sheriff department doesn't have old bus, you know, like he has enough vehicles, not only for what they need, but also replacement.
00:55:54
They hit a deer.
00:55:55
There was a bad couple of weeks where there was a deer, a different accident for this reason, you know, for other reasons that a lot of vehicles went out of commission.
00:56:04
You just never know how that's going to go.
00:56:06
In other weeks, there's everybody's in commission.
00:56:09
And then what I talked about phase two of the funding that
00:56:14
I forgot what I see.
00:56:16
It was 33 point whatever million dollars.
00:56:18
That's to get the last raunch of funding to be able to do the Saint Alma project.
00:56:28
And because we've been using one-time funds, so for the money that I was saying we should borrow, we had been using unreserved fund balance to pay for that.
00:56:42
Just pay for it outright.
00:56:44
We're not doing that this year.
00:56:46
We can't do that.
00:56:47
You know, can't keep doing that forever.
00:56:48
If we finance it, I want to use proffer money, which is one time money and only proffer money can be used for these capital projects.
00:57:00
Proffer money cannot be used to balance the budget, but we would have just enough money to be able to pay the first year of the of the, you know, payment of debt.
00:57:13
for borrowing, you know, short term funding for the sheriff's department.
00:57:17
And then also doing the 27 program where we do the ERP and the vehicles.
00:57:24
But we have to have a managed capital reserve.
00:57:27
So my proposal is at the end of the year, we take 40% of the unreserved ending balance when the conditions of your fiscal management policy are met.
00:57:39
and we put those aside for capital, much like what schools have.
00:57:44
And then that way we have a source of funding to be able to do capital without having to dedicate, you know, pennies on real estate to it, which is also another option.
00:57:56
It just will help facilitate better long-term planning.
00:58:01
These are the ongoing challenges, the reservoir, the capital, I already just talked about that, diversifying the revenue base, adding commercial, putting all the replacement schedules for all the equipment in there, and having that rainy day manage reserves.
00:58:22
So looking ahead, I know I've been talking a lot, we are going to have lots of meetings with you all.
00:58:31
As I said, March Madness.
00:58:32
And on March 26, we will have a town hall where we'll make a presentation, be able to get direct feedback from any citizen who wants to come.
00:58:43
I noticed there's a lot of kids here who I hope are getting extra credit for being at this meeting.
SPEAKER_10
00:58:49
No.
SPEAKER_04
00:58:53
Anyway, but I'm glad to see engagement in the process.
00:58:57
We've got, you know, a wide range of people in interest that should weigh in.
00:59:04
So we'll keep tape.
00:59:07
We can take written feedback.
00:59:09
We can take, you know, you'll probably get calls.
00:59:13
We'll also have the town hall.
00:59:15
We'll have a Q&A process.
00:59:16
So as we go through this and you have questions,
00:59:19
It may not be something that I can answer on the spot because it requires calculation or some research.
00:59:24
And what we'll do is take the time to do that, and then we'll publish the Q&As.
00:59:29
So, and the public hearing will be on April 28th for the tax rate.
00:59:35
You will set the tax rate, what we're going to advertise it for.
00:59:38
You're going to do that.
00:59:40
I think you have to do it by the 16th, but we'll have to do it by the end of next week.
00:59:43
So that's on your schedule.
00:59:46
But the actual vote on what the rate actually is isn't until April 28th.
00:59:52
When you set the rate, you can always go lower, but you can never go higher.
00:59:59
So you want to, at this early stage, leave yourself some flexibility.
01:00:05
It's always a recommended good practice.
01:00:09
We're going to have the presentations, of course, available on our website.
01:00:13
And then this is just thank you to everybody, all the constitutional officers, everybody who's helped, and especially you all as members of the Board of Supervisors, members of the school board, as we are going to have, I'm sure, lots and lots of discussion.
01:00:32
So that's all I had.
01:00:35
We had, I think, next up is, oh.
01:00:41
I don't think it's a presentation, but that's all I had, unless you have any questions at the moment.
SPEAKER_14
01:00:47
I think we'll just move on to everybody that's here.
01:00:53
All right.
01:00:56
Thank you, Ms. Shafrick.
01:00:59
First, outside agency would be discussion of budget with Commonwealth's attorney, Mr. Wayne Consalvo.
7. Discussion of Budget with Commonwealth's Attorney Win Consolvo
SPEAKER_14
01:01:06
Welcome, sir.
01:01:07
Thank you, sir.
01:01:09
We got the room warmed up for you.
SPEAKER_15
01:01:12
Our budget is not that significant.
01:01:20
What we're asking for this year is an increase in salaries.
01:01:24
Our operating costs have gone down a little.
01:01:27
If you look at it, you'll note that the salary increases in comparison to the State Compensation Board were under them.
01:01:36
I'd like to point out especially the Administrative Assistant Paralegal Office Manager, which is all one person in our office.
01:01:44
With the comp board scheme, we really should have two people, but we're not asking for an additional person in that.
01:01:51
We're just asking that that position get that increase to bring her closer up to the band on that.
01:02:00
Same with the Assistant Commonwealth Attorney.
01:02:02
getting him closer and the chief deputy.
01:02:05
My salary is fully funded by the compensation board and so we don't have any additions and I'm not asking for any increase in that other than what the compensation board provides.
01:02:15
It's a pretty simple budget overall and I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has any questions.
SPEAKER_14
01:02:25
Okay, thank you sir.
01:02:26
Questions for Mr. Casalbo?
SPEAKER_13
01:02:30
I take it you have a lot on your docket?
SPEAKER_15
01:02:33
Our numbers are increasing.
01:02:35
I can say that comparatively, you look at some surrounding counties, some of the larger counties we're actually comparable with.
01:02:42
In the cases that we have, other counties that are smaller that actually have
01:02:49
the same staff levels we have if not more are you know they carry maybe half of the docket that we do.
01:02:56
One of the big things that we have one of the advantages we have in Greene County at the moment is just the years of experience both as the administrative assistant paralegal who has 15 plus years the assistant has 20 years in criminal justice and the chief deputy has over 20 years along with myself and so one of the things when you're looking at salaries is
01:03:18
If someone were to leave, what are the levels that we're looking at to be able to get a comparable replacement?
01:03:24
And that's what these numbers reflect.
01:03:26
That's what it would take to bring in someone with a similar level of experience or close to that level of experience.
SPEAKER_14
01:03:34
Thank you.
01:03:35
Yes, sir.
01:03:35
Thank you.
01:03:36
Other questions?
01:03:39
Thank you, sir.
SPEAKER_15
01:03:40
Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_14
01:03:41
Appreciate it.
01:03:42
Yes, sir.
01:03:45
Budget discussion with Commissioner Revenue.
01:03:47
Ms. Kim Tate?
8. Discussion of Budget with Commissioner of Revenue Kim Tate
SPEAKER_14
01:03:51
Welcome.
SPEAKER_06
01:03:54
Welcome back.
01:03:58
So our budget request for this upcoming year remains pretty consistent with previous years, with only minimal increases due to inflation of house such as the state, etc.
01:04:09
We try to utilize the least expensive avenues to keep costs down and therefore keep our budget requests low.
01:04:17
Were there any questions found for that?
SPEAKER_14
01:04:20
Any questions for Miss Tate?
01:04:22
I have none.
01:04:24
Have none?
SPEAKER_06
01:04:25
I would like to add while we're all here to discuss the current fire department ordinance.
01:04:34
In 2024, the board approved the rebate on one motor vehicle not to exceed $100 for qualifying fire department volunteers.
01:04:48
At that time, it seemed to be a good incentive.
01:04:50
However, we were unable to include all the volunteers as some did not reside in Greene County, some do not own vehicles, and there are some that can qualify for the full $500 while others own vehicles with lower taxes.
01:05:05
And knowing that the board desired at that time to be able to provide a more fair and consistent program, our office began searching for ways to do this.
01:05:14
We found that Roanoke County has a volunteer incentive program, which is the package you have in front of you.
01:05:21
If the board is able to approve this fund, it would allow each volunteer, each qualifying volunteer, to be able to receive the full incentive.
SPEAKER_14
01:05:33
When would you need something approved by to make it effective this tax year?
SPEAKER_06
01:05:40
Their reports are due to us by April 1st for what we have been doing, but as this would be coming in the form of a payment and not connected with the personal property taxes, I'd still say April 1st if it's feasible just to keep things consistent.
SPEAKER_14
01:05:59
Thank you for that.
01:06:01
Thank you.
01:06:02
That is something that we had discussed when we actually initiated that program that it's very inequitable across.
01:06:10
Most of the younger people are the ones that are doing all the work now and their cars are not.
01:06:16
Not getting the $500, so this is interesting, so I think we should look into this heavily and the legal implications of it and try to get it implemented as soon as possible.
SPEAKER_06
01:06:26
And we added their ordinance for Miss Kent to be able to review the review.
SPEAKER_14
01:06:31
Excellent.
01:06:32
That would be great.
01:06:33
Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_06
01:06:34
Thank you.
SPEAKER_14
01:06:41
All right, school board budget presentation.
01:06:43
Dr. Andrea Whitmar, Schools Superintendent.
9. School Board budget presentation - Dr. Andrea Whitmarsh, School Superintendent
SPEAKER_14
01:06:47
Welcome.
SPEAKER_07
01:06:49
Hey, members of the board.
SPEAKER_05
01:06:50
I am not Dr. Whitmar.
SPEAKER_07
01:06:53
I am the at-large representative and the chair of the Greene County School Board.
01:06:59
I thank you for the opportunity to stand before you on behalf of our students, our schools, and our community.
01:07:07
You've already noticed, but I'm so appreciative of so many of our students who, of their own free will, came out here tonight knowing they wouldn't even get to speak, but just wanted to show their faces so you know who we're talking about tonight.
01:07:21
Greene County is growing.
01:07:22
New families are choosing to put down roots here, and with them come new students, walking through our school doors every year.
01:07:29
But growth brings responsibility, and tonight we are here to talk honestly about what it takes to meet that responsibility.
01:07:36
Our students' needs are more complex than ever.
01:07:39
We are supporting more children with mental health and social emotional challenges.
01:07:43
As a therapist in my own practice, I see this increase in need and the toll it has on families.
01:07:49
We're also seeing significant challenges among our youngest students that require us to be both proactive and responsive.
01:07:57
We need to support these students early in their academic journey so they'll be more successful by the time they get to middle school.
01:08:04
Additionally, we are welcoming a growing number of multilingual learners who need dedicated resources to thrive.
01:08:12
At the same time,
01:08:13
A shift in our local composite index, as you already heard, means the Commonwealth has determined that Greene County has a greater ability to fund education locally, which also means a greater share of that responsibility now falls to us right here in this room.
01:08:28
Through all of this, what remains constant is the extraordinary workforce that shows up every single day for our kids.
01:08:35
Our teachers, our support staff, our school leaders, they are the single greatest investment we can make in student success.
01:08:42
If we don't show them their value, they will leave our schools and our community loses as a result.
01:08:48
Dr. Whitmarsh will walk you through the details of our school budget proposal shortly.
01:08:53
What I want you to hear from me as your neighbor, a fellow Greene County resident, and as parent of two children in our schools, this budget reflects our shared values, safe schools, strong teachers, and a community that invests in a children's future.
01:09:09
Thank you.
01:09:09
Thank you.
SPEAKER_14
01:09:10
Thank you.
01:09:13
Dr. Whitmarsh.
SPEAKER_01
01:09:14
Hello, good evening everyone.
SPEAKER_14
01:09:16
Good evening.
SPEAKER_01
01:09:17
So, you know, I've stood before most of you many times.
01:09:23
I've been in this role for 13 years and I've never, every year when we present a budget, we always present exactly what we need, no more.
01:09:34
This year we have a big ask.
01:09:36
I've never asked for this much money in new money, but we've got kind of a perfect storm happening.
01:09:43
So I want to go through the details.
01:09:45
Many of you have seen it.
01:09:46
We talked briefly at a different meeting on what the needs would be.
01:09:50
I know it's tough, but if you could just kind of bear with me, I'll walk you through the details of what we have going on here today.
01:10:00
All right.
01:10:02
Am I going up?
01:10:03
All right, so
01:10:08
You got to push it down there.
01:10:10
Well, I was pushing down and then I was like someone was fighting against me.
01:10:13
All right.
01:10:14
So, so important to look at.
01:10:18
You know, we have six schools, including a tech center.
01:10:21
We're super excited about our tech center.
01:10:23
Great things going on there.
01:10:26
We had an addition with our remaining COVID funds that happened that opened just this fall.
01:10:33
OK.
01:10:34
There we go.
01:10:36
Is there a piece of lag?
01:10:37
That's the problem.
01:10:40
All right.
01:10:44
So.
01:10:45
Looking at our staffing, you can see the types of positions that we have, the total positions.
01:10:53
If you look at, we have the degree types, we have lots of people with a master's degree or higher.
01:11:00
64% of our staff live right here in Greene.
01:11:05
We are the largest employer in our community and a majority of our staff live and work here.
01:11:16
Division leadership, and of course our school board members of which you're standing behind me now.
01:11:21
As you know, the budget is a moral document.
01:11:24
So everything that you're going to see reflects our core values and our strategic plan.
01:11:29
We live and breathe by that.
01:11:32
It's our roadmap for how we go forward in the future.
01:11:35
Impact 2027, empowering our community's children for lifelong success.
01:11:41
Get into all the details.
01:11:43
Here are our core values, culture of excellence, safe, supportive, and caring schools, exceptional workforce, connections and partnerships with our community, and resource stewardship.
01:11:58
I think it's important to point out our graduates.
01:12:01
So you can see there our population program type.
01:12:07
We have a great, not only CTE program, we have a governor's school program.
01:12:13
We have an early college where many of our students are walking across the stage and getting their associate's degree before they get their high school diploma.
01:12:21
It's very impressive for a school division our size and our kids are excelling and doing very well.
01:12:28
You can see for the past three graduating classes the diplomas earned and then you can see the types there, including GED.
01:12:44
It's always important to look at context.
01:12:46
So here are our demographics.
01:12:47
You can see our enrollment here.
01:12:48
The enrollment is going up.
01:12:54
That is for sure at Ruckersville Elementary, home of Creekside.
01:12:59
We have more than 70 more kids just this year.
01:13:04
So we're growing.
01:13:06
Our English learner population is also growing.
01:13:11
We have more newcomers, which are this year than we've ever had before.
01:13:16
That means they're new to the country, new to the language, speak very little English.
01:13:22
you can imagine the supports that are required there.
01:13:28
are economically disadvantaged students.
01:13:30
You can see that there.
01:13:31
Total enrollment is in the light green and the percentage of economically disadvantaged.
01:13:37
So you see, we have a steady but fairly high percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged.
01:13:43
That's why we're a part of the community eligibility provision, which means all of our students, regardless of their status, receive free breakfast and lunch because of our high percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged.
01:13:57
And we also have 389 students with disabilities in our schools.
01:14:04
There's the categorical breakdown of our students with disabilities.
01:14:10
I think it's always important, and I tend to show this graphic each year, because the needs are really changing.
01:14:17
We're all experts on school because we all went to school.
01:14:20
So we all think of school in terms of how we last experienced it.
01:14:24
but the needs are really changing.
01:14:27
So if you look at a student and this is Greene County's demographics in this class, overlaid in this class.
01:14:34
So if you look at a class of 20 students, the ones in red would be economically disadvantaged.
01:14:41
The light blue is the English learner or multilingual learner.
01:14:47
The yellow is students with special education needs.
01:14:53
the purple is chronically absent.
01:14:57
So each of those needs, sometimes you have a student who's economically disadvantaged, specialized education, chronically absent, and a multilingual learner, but each of those students come with unique needs.
01:15:12
And what that translates into is different and more responsibilities for our educators to help them to be successful.
01:15:24
By the way, if you have any questions as I walk through this, feel free to let me know.
SPEAKER_13
01:15:27
Do you still have scholarships for the students that want to go to PVZ?
01:15:33
So you say get their associate?
SPEAKER_01
01:15:36
To get their associates?
01:15:38
Well, if they're taught by our students, I mean by our teachers, it's free.
01:15:44
And I believe most of the regular program is free at this point, specifically due to some changes.
01:15:54
That changes year to year.
01:15:56
So if we have a teacher who is qualified to teach dual enrollment, you're enrolled dually in college and high school, and they can do math and that teacher leaves, then we may have to pay and they have to pay for online classes as well.
SPEAKER_13
01:16:13
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01
01:16:18
So
01:16:20
This is really kind of the story of our budget.
01:16:23
Our community's growing.
01:16:24
More kids means more students and a greater demand on schools, which means greater needs.
01:16:31
The local composite index of ability to pay, it's been mentioned several times tonight, and I do have another slide with more details, but basically the way the state's funding formula works, the state thinks Greene County can afford more.
01:16:45
So we're going to get less state funding.
01:16:48
by more than I've seen in my time.
01:16:51
Student needs are evolving to maintain safe, supportive, and caring schools.
01:16:56
We need to address increased mental health and social-emotional needs, more complex behaviors, especially among our youngest learners and a growing multilingual learner population who require targeted supports.
SPEAKER_12
01:17:13
Is there any data yet on the student needs as they're evolving
01:17:18
since I believe this is the first year that kids who were born during COVID are starting to enter the school system in kindergarten, correct?
01:17:28
So is there any data on that?
SPEAKER_01
01:17:29
Well, we could provide you all kinds of data.
01:17:31
OK. All right.
SPEAKER_12
01:17:32
I don't have it prepared.
SPEAKER_01
01:17:33
I will follow up with you then.
01:17:37
Yes.
01:17:37
And needs are different.
01:17:38
I think we have a kindergarten teacher sitting here too that would probably give you lots of data.
01:17:42
But we do have data on how our students are performing, specifically in reading.
01:17:48
but behaviors certainly as well.
SPEAKER_12
01:17:51
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01
01:17:52
And costs are rising for all of us.
01:17:54
The cost of living increase that included this year is 22.8%.
01:18:00
Sometimes feels like 20%.
01:18:01
Our top priority is absolutely our exceptional workforce.
01:18:07
We can't take care of our kids and do what we need to do for our community's children without investing in the exceptional people.
01:18:15
and provide proactive and responsive supports in our schools.
01:18:19
We need to recruit, retain and support outstanding professionals, provide competitive compensation that reflect the rising costs and recognize that our staff workload and student needs continue to increase.
01:18:33
Just a little bit about our budget development process.
01:18:36
Of course, we go through our own process leading up to the school board.
01:18:39
The school board approval starts back in the fall.
01:18:45
Almost as soon as we start the fiscal year, we're working on the next one and we go through that.
01:18:49
This year we had $860,000 in additional requests submitted.
01:18:55
That doesn't include raises or any of that kind of stuff.
01:19:01
Local Composite Index, that's one of the biggest influencing factors that we have in this year's budget.
01:19:09
That's a little bit tough to read, but the state changes the LCI at the start of every biennium.
01:19:19
Previously, our LCI was 0.3411.
01:19:23
That's what we're in right now.
01:19:25
For example, in the caboose budget, this year we're getting more money.
01:19:28
because the LCI is different.
01:19:32
But it's going to go to 0.3703, which is a massive increase.
01:19:38
for us.
01:19:39
So if you look at the LCI, it's determined by the county's local, the ability to pay education costs based on the standards of quality, and they're adjusted to maintain a 45-55 split across the state.
01:19:55
It's all relative, so it's not just about Greene County, it's about where Greene County is and then kind of where every other city and county
01:20:02
fluctuates across the board.
01:20:05
If you look at the green county's numbers, there are three indicators.
01:20:13
The first is true value of real property.
01:20:15
You can see that number there.
01:20:17
That's 50% of the formula.
01:20:19
The adjusted gross income, 40%, and taxable retail sales, 10%.
01:20:25
So that really is the story of why we're in
01:20:29
the situation that we're in.
01:20:31
Specifically, we're receiving quite a bit less, more than a million dollars in state funding, even though we have 90 plus more students.
01:20:43
Recruitment and retention continues to be an issue.
01:20:45
More teachers are leaving the profession.
01:20:49
Others are not coming into the profession.
01:20:52
So we are struggling with the teacher shortage as well.
01:21:01
Here's just a chart of the past three years of the top critical shortage areas in Virginia.
01:21:08
I feel like next year the chart will be a little longer even because most positions are up there.
01:21:15
So you can see where their shortages.
01:21:19
across the state.
01:21:21
This is something we always look at, which is our regional salary data.
01:21:27
The county did a compensation a few years ago looking at salaries
01:21:32
with employees.
01:21:34
And ours is a little more straightforward because educators, education tends to have salary scales, at least in Virginia, step zero through 30.
01:21:45
And you can see where we fall on these, the light green, we're right in the middle.
01:21:50
So our bachelor's degree and for a master's degree,
01:21:54
and what you see there is progression through the career at zero years, five, 10, 20 and 30.
01:22:01
So where we rank in comparison to those cities and counties, which are the ones we tend to, people move around from division to division, you can see with the bachelors, we're fourth, we ranked fourth, master sixth.
01:22:18
The problem is by the time we get to the end of the career, we rank eighth.
01:22:24
So we are not competitive and we are losing teachers at the end of their career.
01:22:28
People who have spent a long time in Greene County, as they get closer to that retirement, you're looking at your high three and you can go to Charlottesville and Albemarle or Louisa or wherever and earn more money.
01:22:42
So that is where we are less competitive.
01:22:45
We know we are not going to be Charlottesville and Albemarle.
01:22:49
We're not trying to get to number one.
01:22:52
We're just trying to remain.
01:22:54
We don't want to be the last and we want to be competitive.
01:22:58
So we do need work there.
01:23:02
So looking at historic revenue, you can see their state federal revenue there on the sheet.
01:23:12
You guys have everything in a little more clear form.
01:23:17
But you can see we don't even know yet what our state funding is.
01:23:22
As I stood before you not long ago when we were starting, we had that first meeting about the budget.
01:23:29
I told you it was Youngkin's budget, right?
01:23:31
And Youngkin's not our governor anymore.
01:23:33
And so I was really hopeful that we were going to get more money.
01:23:36
And we're not probably, we don't know where it's going to land.
01:23:39
But what it looks like right now, there's a 2% salary increase in the House.
01:23:46
And that's the largest number, right?
01:23:48
Usually.
01:23:50
beyond basic aid.
01:23:52
So compensation, 2% in the House, 3% in the Senate, which Youngkin's budget was 2%.
01:24:00
So there's not a whole lot more money.
01:24:03
In the House version of the budget, there is some flexible money.
01:24:09
However, that's not continual money.
01:24:14
Flexible money, if it's one-time money, you can't use that to pay for compensation increases.
01:24:21
So we're waiting to find out more about that.
01:24:23
There's our debt service over the next few years.
01:24:26
You can see we have a little over $9,000 in retiring debt this year.
01:24:31
The good news about that is in the next two years, we have more significant amounts of retiring debt.
01:24:42
So here's what we have included in our budget proposal.
01:24:45
And again, the focus is really on our exceptional workforce.
01:24:51
The county's health insurance increase, you came back at 15, ours is 23.2%.
01:24:55
That's massive.
01:24:59
Unfortunately, we also have, or fortunately, we have more employees, so it's over a million dollars for that increase.
01:25:09
For a 5% increase for our teachers is $836,000.
01:25:14
We do get some state money toward compensation increases, the way it's funded is
01:25:21
based on LCI and then standards of quality.
01:25:24
So the state contributes some towards compensation, but even if the state says they're giving us a 5% raise, we would not get enough money from them.
01:25:36
There always is a local match required.
01:25:40
As I shared our salary scales, we are really losing ground in the teacher salary scale.
01:25:47
So what we have included is stretching the salary scale out.
01:25:52
We currently have 1% between steps, which is by the time you get to the end, we are much less competitive.
01:25:59
We would like to include 1.5% between steps, which would stretch the entire scale out.
01:26:07
5% increase for remaining staff.
01:26:10
And then we have five new positions, which are aligned with what I shared previously.
01:26:16
An elementary school counselor, we have many more students at Ruckersville specifically, we need to add another counselor.
01:26:23
And needs are certainly great.
01:26:27
We received a Go Tech grant, about $150,000 in equipment to run a class at the middle school.
01:26:35
and we need an instructor to go with that to deal with our youngest students, some with behavioral challenges, a strong STARTS teacher and educational support staff member.
01:26:49
And then because of our growing multilingual learner population, we need to add an additional teacher in that as well.
01:27:08
So looking at our proposal there, we have a gap there.
01:27:14
It's obviously not.
01:27:15
It's much greater than what Ms. Shafrick has proposed to balance the budget.
01:27:22
I'd love to think that the number is going to go down, that that gap will narrow as we get more information from the state.
01:27:29
I just don't believe it's going to happen at this point.
01:27:32
So we find ourselves in a place needing more than $4 million.
01:27:37
to balance our budget.
01:27:39
I'm a citizen.
01:27:42
I'm a taxpayer.
01:27:43
I get it.
01:27:44
It's a tough decision.
01:27:49
I think we have to take care of our schools.
01:27:51
We have to take care of our kids.
01:27:52
We have to take care of our educators.
01:27:54
We do great things.
01:27:55
You know, the kids sitting in here, we have two student board members here and lots of other students who came.
01:28:02
They're going to be the ones sitting up here in a few years.
01:28:04
And so we want them to be well prepared to make good decisions for our future, right?
01:28:09
So we have to take care of our kids and we do that by taking care of our exceptional workforce.
01:28:15
So with that, you can see the categories included there and we welcome any questions, thoughts, perspectives.
SPEAKER_14
01:28:25
Questions for Dr. Whitmarsh?
SPEAKER_13
01:28:26
I hate to see it at LCI.
01:28:34
You're not kidding.
01:28:37
And they had a lot of money left after
01:28:43
until the governor came in.
SPEAKER_12
01:28:44
The surplus at the state level.
SPEAKER_13
01:28:46
Surplus, yeah.
01:28:47
Yes.
SPEAKER_12
01:28:49
And you said that this happens every two years, correct?
SPEAKER_01
01:28:52
Every two years.
01:28:52
So when there's a new biennium, the local composite index changes because the state budget is done on a two-year cycle.
01:29:00
So that's the time when it's a new biennium that it changes.
SPEAKER_12
01:29:03
And I know it's very difficult to predict the future, but
01:29:07
continued growth in the area, continued raising salaries for people moving to the area, things like that would probably mean that the state is going to continuously look at us as being able to fund more locally.
01:29:20
So I know that's not necessarily a direct conversation for this budget season, but I do want to point out that this isn't going to be something that is
01:29:27
No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01
01:29:31
As a matter of fact, that's a great point.
01:29:33
There's a two-year lag in this data.
01:29:36
So this data is from two years ago that is used to figure the LCI for the start of this biennium.
SPEAKER_12
01:29:44
Okay, so the numbers that you were showing were from two years ago on our real property value.
SPEAKER_01
01:29:50
So if we look at now, like, the number, the information now is what's going to be used for the other two years from now.
SPEAKER_12
01:30:00
Which doesn't include any Creekside or any of those other developments.
SPEAKER_10
01:30:06
And the large jump in real estate value is one of the things I caught my eye when I looked at it.
01:30:12
You know, the lines, the budget.
01:30:15
And because we've had such an increase, you know, they're like, yep, that's 50% of how we calculate your LCI.
01:30:21
So we think you can pay it.
SPEAKER_01
01:30:26
We had the 12th largest increase in the state in LCI.
SPEAKER_14
01:30:32
And what is the LCI shortfall by itself?
SPEAKER_01
01:30:36
So it's hard to pull that out.
01:30:38
It's about probably about 1.3.
01:30:43
Then we have additional kids.
01:30:47
Normally you would have expected if all else was the same we would get much more funding this year because we have 90 plus more students.
SPEAKER_14
01:31:06
How many students total?
SPEAKER_01
01:31:09
Our total enrollment right now 27
01:31:13
81, 86, something close enough, right?
SPEAKER_03
01:31:23
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_14
01:31:31
Other questions?
01:31:33
It's a lot to absorb.
01:31:34
We need to absorb it.
01:31:36
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
01:31:36
And also, if you have questions as you observe it, for wanting any additional data, we're happy to provide whatever you need.
SPEAKER_14
01:31:45
Sounds good.
01:31:48
Sure.
SPEAKER_05
01:31:50
I think, too, the insurance situation is huge.
01:31:54
The amount that came in for the insurance portion is more significant than we've seen, I mean, than I've ever seen.
01:32:02
And I work in an additional county in a school system
01:32:06
where we are consistently not being compensated or they're not eating the part of our insurance increases.
01:32:14
And so I actually make less money than I used to six years ago because of the insurance increases that are not being approved by the board.
01:32:21
And so we have consistently since I've been on the board, and I know before that absorb those insurance increases, which I think is huge when it comes to our staff and actually seeing the raises that they're given instead of those being eaten up by
01:32:34
Why do you think your percentage is so much higher than the county's, just based on the amount of people that are enrolled?
SPEAKER_01
01:32:53
The increases are based on claims experience.
01:33:01
What I've been told is across the board, prescriptions, there's an issue specifically with GLP-1s, so they won't be covered next year if that's an Anthem thing.
01:33:12
You guys have Anthem as well.
01:33:14
So that
01:33:16
What I'm hearing is that contributed to some of it.
01:33:19
But at the end of the day, a local choice said the renewals were going to be between 7% and 25%.
01:33:25
We're at the top end of that.
01:33:28
But everyone that I've talked to is experiencing higher than normal renewals.
01:33:35
That being said, claims experience also contributes.
01:33:38
So we're trying to explore all options to see what we can do there.
01:33:45
but at the end of the day, health insurance is expensive for all of us, right?
SPEAKER_12
01:33:49
So it was a 23.2% increase.
01:33:53
How much longer is that contract with Anthem and like what was the process there?
01:34:01
Is that something we can look at in a couple years?
SPEAKER_01
01:34:04
Well, no, we could look at it now for next year.
01:34:06
So however, one of the issues with local choice is that you have to buy out.
01:34:11
right so if we said we were going to leave Local Choice and do an RFP and go to somebody else there would be a look back period so they'd look at the claims over the last few months and there's also a run-out period so they'd they'd get to the end of the six months past the start or past the time we terminate and charge us potentially for what's out there so we would be making a change
01:34:40
without knowing how much it was gonna cost us to exit.
SPEAKER_12
01:34:44
And also not knowing right off the bat how much it would save us going with the day.
01:34:47
Correct.
SPEAKER_01
01:34:48
Now we could probably do, so we're exploring that.
01:34:52
I had a meeting today to talk a little bit more about that and figure out, there are other levers we can pull as well.
01:34:59
We do wanna take care of our staff, but we also need to be mindful of the costs that we're all incurring.
SPEAKER_12
01:35:08
and I do just want to point out to the rest of the board I've watched and been at many of the meetings where they've been discussing all this and they have, I mean I can't even tell you how many different topics you guys have gone over trying to figure out how to best approach this large problem and so I just wanted to again say thank you for all the hard work you guys are doing because now I'm feeling the pain on this side.
SPEAKER_01
01:35:30
It's painful all around, isn't it?
01:35:31
Yes, yes.
01:35:33
I do want to note, too, that if, for example, if by chance we cannot give the compensation increase that's included in whatever the final state budget happens to be, we get less state money.
01:35:46
So part of the state money we're including here is money toward a compensation increase, and you have to be able, you have to give it, meaning the county has to match it
01:35:57
in order for us to get all of the funds there.
SPEAKER_12
01:36:01
And so right now, because we don't know, but it was 2%,
SPEAKER_01
01:36:07
So we're based on the first Youngkin's budget.
01:36:12
So we're based on that, which is 2%.
01:36:14
House and Senate are at 2 and 3.
01:36:16
They're not agreeing on their budget.
01:36:18
There's going to be a crossover budget that will come out.
SPEAKER_12
01:36:23
Just so I understand this, if they came out and said 3, we only gave it 2, which is not my recommendation, but then that 1% would
01:36:31
and up not, we wouldn't be getting all the state funding that we would normally get.
01:36:37
Correct.
01:36:37
Okay.
SPEAKER_01
01:36:37
Correct.
01:36:38
You have to certify, you have to certify that you've given the raise.
01:36:43
I'm always fearful.
01:36:44
That's my phone.
01:36:46
So you have to certify that you've given the raise in order to get the funds.
01:36:50
And there, there are sometimes different ways to do it, you know, that they will allow to do it, but every budget
SPEAKER_12
01:36:57
I just don't want to miss it.
SPEAKER_01
01:36:58
Yeah, no, we don't want to mess with that.
01:37:00
We want to make sure we're taking advantage of every dollar that the state is willing to give us because we need it.
SPEAKER_05
01:37:07
I just want to point out as well.
01:37:09
The cost of living increases 2.8, so if we came in at just a two, we wouldn't be needing the cost of living.
01:37:16
Plus, then they would potentially have to tack on the additional insurance stuff.
01:37:20
I mean, they'd be making significantly less.
SPEAKER_12
01:37:24
Thank you.
01:37:24
Yeah, that's what I'm
SPEAKER_05
01:37:27
Yeah, for sure.
01:37:30
I know it's a lot to absorb, but just bringing up those little pieces that, you know.
01:37:35
Bring us back up again.
SPEAKER_14
01:37:36
Our taxpayers are in the exact same boat.
01:37:38
Yeah, it's all right.
01:37:40
Insurance pools.
01:37:41
Other questions.
01:37:44
OK, well this is a work in progress.
01:37:47
Thank you.
01:37:48
Sure will talk soon.
SPEAKER_03
01:37:49
Thank you.
SPEAKER_14
01:37:52
Discussion of budget with Sheriff Steve Smith, but he just left, so does that mean we can go home?
01:37:58
Major White is here.
01:38:01
We got Josh White.
10. Discussion of Budget with Sheriff Steve Smith and Sheriff's Office
SPEAKER_14
01:38:04
Welcome, sir.
SPEAKER_16
01:38:05
Thank you.
01:38:06
Thank you, Chairman, members of the board, Ms. Shaffer, county employees.
01:38:13
I'm happy to share with all of us and the sheriff himself.
01:38:16
I'm glad to be here talking to you all today just to give you a little bit more of what Ms. Shaffer
01:38:22
presented earlier.
01:38:24
So our original request was for six new positions, which are four deputies, one FOIA officer, one front receptionist when we do the extension.
01:38:34
We were asking for additional part-time funds to cover the growing demands of multiple court schedules, which included recommended budget by the county administrators.
01:38:44
So last Friday, we spoke with the county administrator.
01:38:49
So we decided to narrow our positions down to four.
01:38:55
and the biggest thing for those positions are a night shift.
01:39:00
We're getting tons of calls, as you all may know, safety of our citizens and our deputies.
01:39:07
We definitely need a few positions for the night shift, absolutely 100%.
01:39:12
We'll work on the other stuff, but if we could get those, it would be greatly appreciated.
01:39:17
The FOIA officer, I do FOIA.
01:39:19
I've done over 400 plus FOIAs in the last three years.
01:39:24
for the county, for the sheriff's office.
01:39:26
It's a lot.
01:39:28
So our part-time accreditation manager has came to me and the sheriff, and we're going to split those to alleviate FAA for another position for a FOIA officer.
01:39:42
So she and I will be doing that to, you know, help the county, help the sheriff, so.
01:39:48
And our front desk receptionist, we're not asking for that anymore just to help out, so
01:39:54
Anything, like I said, would be greatly appreciated.
01:39:56
But those four were positions.
01:39:59
And I know Animal Patrol E911, Victim Witness, which is under the Sheriff's and his control.
01:40:05
We're not asking for any positions there.
01:40:07
Just some line items with minimal increases just for operating, you know, to help us with operating.
01:40:16
That's all I have for some questions.
SPEAKER_02
01:40:19
Questions of the Sheriff's Office?
SPEAKER_13
01:40:26
Have you got a new console for dispatch?
SPEAKER_16
01:40:35
No, not yet.
01:40:37
We're hoping to get that renovation done and then build from there.
01:40:41
Absolutely.
01:40:42
What I wanted to talk about was the renovation.
SPEAKER_14
01:40:44
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02
01:40:48
We really appreciate it if you get that approved and get that started and all that we wait for more is for calls.
01:40:54
with the new data center being approved and originally I've been told that it's hard to get cable and stuff now.
01:40:59
And when you can, it's really, it's worth like $89 a box for two to eight kilobytes.
01:41:05
So the longer you wait, the more you'll fall.
01:41:08
Appreciate that.
01:41:10
Here's Mike to talk a little bit about it.
01:41:12
What about now, dude?
SPEAKER_11
01:41:13
Yes, so ZMM reached out to me, which is the engineer and architect program contractor we reached out to.
01:41:22
They are really trying to get this ball rolling.
01:41:24
They have seen a huge increase in metal moldings, doors, trim, electrical and copper components, concrete and aggregation.
01:41:34
Tariffs also 50%, you know.
01:41:38
Looking like about a 15% increase from the soft bids that we had gotten back in early December and late July.
01:41:47
So I mean to put that in perspective, you know that one of the bids was like roughly about $657,000.
01:41:52
I mean we'll be looking at like
01:41:55
755 now.
01:41:57
They're really pushing.
01:42:01
Randy couldn't be here tonight.
01:42:03
He said if y'all want him, he was scheduled to be here on the next meeting.
01:42:07
But they have projects that they're trying to get on to get started.
01:42:11
So they're really pushing to get this moving forward.
SPEAKER_02
01:42:14
The company's calling us.
01:42:19
Wanted to get that thing delivered and set up.
01:42:21
Can't do that.
01:42:26
I don't know how many of you have heard about the positions while we're doing that.
01:42:30
The last couple of pass downs from the deck of chairs was that several major calls that the deputies had to have a delayed response because they were all tied up.
01:42:38
And we really needed to get an extra position on each meeting and show that we can get away faster.
01:42:46
I know sometimes you have a lot of calls during the night.
SPEAKER_13
01:43:04
I never realized that.
SPEAKER_02
01:43:06
I mean, just just.
01:43:09
With all the growth and I know you let us all the traffic 1.9 and 33.
01:43:15
And we have a lot of
01:43:16
We don't have a state trooper hauling anymore to help us with the accidents.
01:43:19
We have to work all those.
01:43:21
We've got one guy that works here in Madison and most of the time he can't come out.
01:43:25
So we sent two guys to the reconstruction school to make sure we could do the most serious accidents that we have with injuries or death.
01:43:35
So that's been, it's tied us up a lot too.
SPEAKER_13
01:43:39
I know you had one hour during the night, you had five calls.
01:43:46
Thank you.
SPEAKER_03
01:43:53
Thank you.
SPEAKER_13
01:43:56
Sure.
SPEAKER_14
01:44:00
All right.
01:44:01
Discussion of budget with the treasurer.
11. Discussion of Budget with Treasurer Dawn Lotts Marshall
SPEAKER_14
01:44:08
Welcome.
SPEAKER_09
01:44:11
Welcome back.
01:44:12
Welcome.
01:44:15
Um,
01:44:16
I've got, I'm going to talk about just my budget.
01:44:18
There's not much actually to talk about with that, but I do have a presentation to do on kind of the ERP and the revenue system on our sides.
01:44:28
I do have a presentation that I want to go over about that.
01:44:31
But as far as the budget, it's a 2% increase.
01:44:35
Most of the budget is paper cost, postage is going up.
01:44:40
and that's pretty standard what we've done.
01:44:42
I have added one line item under professional services and that's specifically for any tax sales that we do.
01:44:50
We have to have an attorney for that.
01:44:52
They have started working this past year on some of the or this current fiscal year on that and I've seen one four thousand dollar bill come in and another one's getting ready to come in as well.
01:45:02
Previously, there hasn't been a line item for that in the budget and we do have to have that.
01:45:06
That is state code that an attorney has to handle those.
01:45:09
So I did put $15,000 onto that line item.
01:45:13
I don't know what it's going to cost.
01:45:15
I'm just kind of roughly going off what I've seen so far.
01:45:18
So other than that, not much has changed.
01:45:21
Just an overall 2% increase for that.
SPEAKER_14
01:45:28
Any questions?
SPEAKER_03
01:45:32
Okay.
SPEAKER_06
01:45:33
Alright, any questions?
01:45:42
No questions.
SPEAKER_03
01:45:44
Right along.
SPEAKER_04
01:46:01
It just pops up once.
SPEAKER_09
01:46:07
All right.
01:46:08
So when Kathy was presenting, she talked a little bit about the ERP.
01:46:12
So I'm just going to go in a little bit more in depth with this, mainly just I'm speaking on behalf of my office in the Commissioner of Revenue.
01:46:19
I know she left.
01:46:19
She was going to tune in when she got home, but she gave me her blessing to present on behalf of both of us.
01:46:26
So modernize in the revenue system, the statutory revenue platform, driving the county's financial lifecycle.
01:46:34
Okay, so the revenue lifecycle.
01:46:37
Revenue initiates and drives the county's financial cycle.
01:46:41
When our county administrator was presenting, she was showing you that patch art and she was showing you the real estate and how much tax revenue and the personal property and that's our largest revenue buckets, right?
01:46:51
So that comes from what our constitutional offices do, the treasurer and the commissioner of revenue.
01:46:57
So the commissioner is assessing, she's applying the tax calculation, it's flowing over to me for the billing, the collections and the compliance with state code and making sure that we're following all of that.
01:47:08
So that's kind of a little life cycle that we're looking at with revenue.
01:47:12
So two systems, two roles.
01:47:14
So I'm kind of going to use a vehicle for this just to give you a good analogy.
01:47:18
So engine, that's our revenue system.
01:47:20
And I look at that as an external system.
01:47:23
Dashboard is your enterprise system.
01:47:25
And that's kind of what our county administrator has been talking about.
01:47:28
And that's an internal system.
01:47:30
So for the revenue system, that serves the public under statutory authority.
01:47:35
So by code, we have to choose what platform that we're going to use.
01:47:40
We're responsible for that platform because we're elected officials.
01:47:43
If you're in a larger locality that doesn't have a constitutional office,
01:47:47
officers like Fairfax, for example, they're a large locality and they don't have a treasurer, they don't have a commissioner of revenue that may fall under a tax department or a finance department.
01:47:58
And so when you talk about an ERP system that does everything, it makes sense in a locality like that.
01:48:03
It might make sense in a larger locality, but we're a smaller locality and we have constitutional officers and we have to be responsible for those systems.
01:48:12
So our system executes assessment, billing, collections, and compliance.
01:48:17
It generates and collects the county revenue and it interfaces directly with the citizens.
01:48:21
So what we do directly affects the citizens.
01:48:25
And then when you look at the dashboard, so you got the engine that drives, right?
01:48:28
And then you got a dashboard.
01:48:29
So we've got all this revenue coming in.
01:48:30
What are we going to do with it?
01:48:31
Well, that's where the enterprise system comes in.
01:48:34
That's your internal functions.
01:48:35
So I've got accounting, budgeting, reporting, HR.
01:48:38
So that system is going to organize and display the financial results.
01:48:41
It's going to reflect the activity generated by the revenue system.
01:48:45
So I kind of want to identify these two different systems since we're talking about kind of moving to more modern systems.
01:48:54
our current revenue in them.
01:48:56
So we, Kathy was talking about this a little bit trying to determine when that was introduced.
01:49:00
So the legacy AS400 based architecture was introduced in 1988.
01:49:05
We use the company, Bright.
01:49:08
And so Tony Bright started that company in 1985.
01:49:11
And there's actually still a treasurer here in Virginia that, that actually he was the first treasurer that
01:49:18
went with Tony in 1985 and they had an accounting system.
01:49:22
So I think that's probably what maybe we had before we got the AS400.
01:49:25
So we may have had that earlier in the early 90s here.
01:49:28
And so then they developed what we know it today as BAI, Bright, whatever we want to call it.
01:49:36
And so we partnered with them for that particular municipal software on April 1st of 1998.
01:49:42
So this system was designed primarily for heavy internal processing, so processing large volumes of data.
01:49:49
So banks love this system.
01:49:50
Treasures love this system.
01:49:52
Commissioners of revenues love this system.
01:49:53
That's why it's still around today.
01:49:55
It's a workhorse.
01:49:57
But it has limited integration and flexibility.
01:50:00
It's a limited direct online citizen interface.
01:50:02
I don't know how many times, even myself included, can I just go online and pay?
01:50:06
Can I pay by ACH?
01:50:07
We would all love that capability, but our system doesn't have that.
01:50:11
We'd have to get another third-party system to try and integrate with our current system to be able to even do that.
01:50:17
structured around batch processing workflows rather than real-time web-based analytics.
01:50:23
So if someone comes in and makes a payment today, they can't see that payment reflected until we batch everything at the end of the day.
01:50:28
If there's an issue and we can't batch, then they're not going to see that until we batch.
01:50:33
You know, technology today, if you make a payment, you can leave and pull up your account and you can see that your payment's processed and you feel good that you know that that was taken care of.
01:50:41
So this is kind of the era that we're working in currently.
01:50:44
It's a stable system, but it's aging infrastructure.
01:50:48
And there's been a lot of changes with Bright recently.
01:50:51
One of their veteran, I guess he was a, he was their IT person and he left and he had been there for quite some time.
01:51:03
And when he left, we kind of
01:51:05
saw some changes.
01:51:07
And then another lady that worked with them for I think 15, 20 years, she unexpectedly passed.
01:51:14
And so we've seen that affecting things.
01:51:17
So what used to be a two-hour work ticket, when I would put one in, I'd get a two-hour turnaround time, it's two weeks now.
01:51:22
So unless it's something simple.
01:51:24
But if it's something that's an issue, two weeks.
01:51:27
So there's
01:51:30
There's some concerns there.
01:51:33
We talked about that maybe they would go, they might try looking at building out and doing another system.
01:51:39
Well, I'm not interested in being a lab rat because I kind of feel like that's what's going to happen.
01:51:44
And I don't think we need that for our locality.
01:51:48
They were actually going to sell out to Edmonds, I think about a year and a half ago and then that fell through.
01:51:53
I'm not sure what happened with that.
01:51:55
So we know that they're looking elsewhere and they've lost two of their key people.
01:51:59
So what does that mean?
01:52:00
What does that mean for us?
01:52:04
Now, take you back.
01:52:05
Let's reminisce.
01:52:07
So the AS400 that we're using, this is when it was built.
01:52:11
So if you can remember that era, I like to call it the beige era.
01:52:15
Everything was beige.
01:52:16
If you look at that ad there in the middle, that's actually an IBM ad from the 80s.
01:52:21
And you can see the green screen.
01:52:23
If you look to the right, that is my screen right now.
01:52:25
And so my little initials up there.
01:52:28
But that is the screen.
01:52:29
If you come in and make a payment today, that's the screen that I'm pulling up.
01:52:33
The same screen that we pulled up 30 years ago.
01:52:35
Hasn't changed.
01:52:36
Some of the functionality has changed, but I think also Kathy had shown the screen as well from their side.
01:52:43
So the world today, look at the difference.
01:52:45
We don't have a Walkman.
01:52:46
We have AirPods.
01:52:47
You can get any movie.
01:52:48
You don't have to go to the theater.
01:52:49
You can get it right on your TV, the graphics on your Game Boys or your Nintendo Switches, your laptops.
01:52:55
Your phones can do everything a computer can do.
01:52:57
Your watch can do everything a computer can do now.
01:53:01
And then we have cloud interfaces.
01:53:05
We don't have the big room with the big computer and the big database.
01:53:09
Now everything's cloud technology.
01:53:12
So modern revenue engine.
01:53:13
So if we were to go to a modern revenue engine, again, just like our old one, it's designed to support tax administration under Title 58.1 Code of Virginia.
01:53:24
There's integrated assessment and billing, real-time taxpayer account view, online citizen self-service, built-in reporting and analytics, customizable billing and notices, integrated delinquency enforcement tools.
01:53:37
We connect to DMV through our system, and that's how we put holds on accounts or things like that.
01:53:42
Some people, some treasurers and commissioners file state taxes on behalf of citizens.
01:53:48
We don't do this in this locality, so some of the other localities will connect to ERMs and things like that or other state sites.
01:53:56
So that's all built into the revenue models.
01:54:00
And if you look here, this is actually technology that's out there today.
01:54:04
So that same treasurer that I told you that was the first treasurer that went with Bright back in 1985, two years ago, he switched to this system.
01:54:12
So he used Bright for all those years until two years ago.
01:54:16
And this is the system that he has switched to.
01:54:18
And he's very much a man that does not like change, loves his system.
01:54:23
Just this first screen up here is a dashboard.
01:54:26
and you can see the little pie chart there.
01:54:28
So the green is his paid taxes for this year and the yellow is his delinquent or his delinquent taxes at this point in time.
01:54:34
He can click on that pie chart and it can give a list of everybody that's paid.
01:54:39
If he clicks on the yellow part he can get a list of all the delinquent taxpayers there.
01:54:45
the next screen is just more detailed information of people to go into a real estate tax ticket down that side over there are notes and so what happens between the Commissioner and Revenues Office this is kind of a running note system if the Commissioner abates a tax we can see it right there in real time that that was done a lot of times we send them over there because you know they say oh I got rid of this car last year okay you got to go
01:55:09
Go to the Commissioner.
01:55:10
We've got to go over there.
01:55:11
We don't see that abatement until we close at the end of the day.
01:55:14
Remember that batch processing.
01:55:16
Here it's real time.
01:55:17
We can see what they did.
01:55:18
We don't have to call over and say, did you, you know, did you do that?
01:55:21
If we update an address, it updates our system.
01:55:24
Her office is the office of record for addresses.
01:55:27
So we have to update it on our side.
01:55:30
We have to print a copy and we send it to her to update it here.
01:55:33
It talks both ways, right?
01:55:34
She updates it, it updates our building.
01:55:36
If we update it, it updates her commissioner's side.
01:55:39
So that's the type of technology that's available for revenue systems now.
01:55:45
Technology environment then and now, it's kind of what I was saying, but now or what we've been using as the centralized computing era, so a terminal-based interface, where now it's a browser-based user interface, the batch processing versus real-time processing, structured predefined report libraries, I know finance, you know,
01:56:06
can't get anything out of this system.
01:56:10
And so to me, it's almost like it's just a big data bank at this point, right?
01:56:14
We've got all this data in there, but to do anything with it, we have to export the data.
01:56:18
We have to put it in Excel.
01:56:20
That's how they do all of their functions.
01:56:23
That's how I have to do my functions.
01:56:25
I have to do my bank rec in Excel.
01:56:27
I have to export billing, and I have to put that in Excel.
01:56:30
I have to send it to our printer.
01:56:32
So it's almost just like it's a data bank and we export it, we do the work and then we do what we need to do with that.
01:56:37
Whereas if we're in this web-based architecture, everything's integrated and we don't have to export it, right?
01:56:43
It can already do those functions because technologies advance that much.
01:56:47
It can do it in the system as it should.
01:56:52
you know, the old system staff driven data process and it's manual management.
01:56:56
Basically what I was just saying, modern web-based architecture, citizen self-service functionality, almost every single new system now would have the functionality for a citizen to log in, look at real time at their account, say, okay, I want to pay this, this and this and process their payment right there in the system.
01:57:15
And then feed that payment.
01:57:24
So another beige era truck.
01:57:29
So the VAI Bright has served us well.
01:57:40
Just like the old Chevy truck, durable, dependable, still observational, but it's manual, right?
01:57:46
It was, you had to roll up the window.
01:57:48
There weren't automatic windows.
01:57:50
You know, it was designed for a different environment and expensive.
01:57:53
My son, who's 11 years old, keeps telling me, I want a square body truck when I turn 16.
01:57:57
And you know, those things are 45 and $50,000 of their fixed up.
01:58:01
Just like that old truck, if you tried to buy that now fixed up, it's expensive to maintain an old system.
01:58:08
Social services, I'm trying to get them into our positive pay with the bank and I'm having to build out something in BAI right now and
01:58:18
You know, they told me they'd have to do a quote.
01:58:20
Well, it's just an amount of characters.
01:58:22
Like it might take 30 characters and it needs to expand to 80 characters.
01:58:25
So I thought, okay, $200, $300 quote.
01:58:27
It came back at $800.
01:58:28
Like that's absurd to me.
01:58:32
But that's what we're talking about.
01:58:33
And that's just a small change.
01:58:36
Imagine any big changes we have to do.
01:58:38
So it's just going to become more expensive the older that technology is.
01:58:43
The road has changed.
01:58:44
And then we've got this big, beautiful truck.
01:58:47
Fully integrated systems, real-time diagnostics, automated systems designed for high-demand environments, built-in safety and compliance controls.
01:58:55
And again, that can just relate to the difference in the old system and the new system.
01:59:00
Different systems, different authority.
01:59:02
Revenue systems, external constitutional officer authority.
01:59:07
Enterprise system is internal administrative authority.
01:59:10
Again, our system, established by statute, directly serves citizens, executes collection under state law.
01:59:17
System selection falls under the constitutional responsibility.
01:59:20
The enterprise system
01:59:22
The internal workings, manages internal operations, financial reporting, HR functions, supports organizational coordination, falls under administrative governance.
01:59:31
Authority and accountability must align.
01:59:34
Adopting an established revenue system risk and cost controls.
01:59:38
One of the things that
01:59:42
For our offices, the constitutional offices, if we are choosing a new revenue system, one of the nice things is that there's, you know, other localities have already done the legwork and they have riders that the county can ride on.
01:59:59
And so that's going to be a cost and time savings.
02:00:02
Proven system interfaces used by other Virginia localities, they're already using these products that we're thinking about.
02:00:09
We avoid customer ERP module development.
02:00:13
What we don't want to do and what doesn't make sense, especially since we're constitutional officers, is having an ERP system and building out for the commissioner and building out for the treasurer.
02:00:22
Reduce implementation risk and long-term maintenance costs.
02:00:26
peer networks support across Virginia constitutional offices.
02:00:30
I can't tell you how many times I've called other treasurers and said, I want to do this function.
02:00:35
Does our system do it?
02:00:36
Everybody else has Bright.
02:00:38
And they'll say, sure.
02:00:38
And they'll just send me their process, and I just do it.
02:00:40
That's free.
02:00:41
It's free.
02:00:42
It doesn't cost anything.
02:00:43
If we build out something for our office, we lose that peer net.
02:00:46
We're going to have to pay for everything that we need to do.
02:00:49
If we forget or we don't realize that we needed to add something in, then we're going to have to build that out.
02:00:56
shared product enhancements through vendor updates.
02:00:59
Another nice thing is that usually when these revenue systems, let's say a locality wants to create something, I know one of the localities had recently done something with land use.
02:01:10
And so what happened is they created that, they paid for that, but then on the next update, it rolled out to every other locality.
02:01:18
Funding Structure Phase 1.
02:01:20
So Kathy talked a little bit about this.
02:01:22
She had $300,000 in there with $50,000 coming to each of our offices.
02:01:26
What I'm just asking is that we allocate that to the constitutional office of CIP.
02:01:31
So we are responsible for that.
02:01:33
The funding follows our responsibility.
02:01:36
The authority aligns with our accountability.
02:01:38
The revenue operations remain governed by statutory authority.
02:01:44
Phase one includes defining system needs, vendor evaluation and selection process, integration planning, security and compliance review, develop phased implementation plan.
02:01:54
And this is in coordination with the county and with what they're doing.
02:01:59
It's not something we're looking to rush and get.
02:02:01
Our timeline is the county's timeline.
02:02:05
It's something that needs to be a coordinated effort that we're doing together.
02:02:09
We don't want an old system connected to a new system.
02:02:12
no matter which one it's going first.
02:02:14
You want to try and do that as a coordinated effort.
02:02:17
But we also need to have that funding allocated to us so we can do what we do as we move forward.
02:02:24
So we talked about the revenue lifecycle.
02:02:26
So this is the financial lifecycle.
02:02:28
The engine drives revenue.
02:02:29
The dashboard organizes it.
02:02:31
So we kind of have our external tasks there and then our internal tasks.
02:02:37
We don't design the hack before choosing the engine.
02:02:40
That's all I have.
02:02:43
Do you have any questions?
02:02:44
Happy to answer them.
SPEAKER_13
02:02:46
Do you use cloud?
SPEAKER_09
02:02:48
What's that?
SPEAKER_13
02:02:48
Cloud.
02:02:49
Do you backup anything with cloud?
SPEAKER_09
02:02:51
So it just all goes to whatever our one IT person is doing.
02:02:57
How is that backed up?
SPEAKER_04
02:03:00
It's a tape backup every day.
SPEAKER_12
02:03:02
Okay.
02:03:03
Every day?
SPEAKER_04
02:03:05
Yeah.
02:03:05
Okay.
02:03:06
Pretty much.
02:03:07
Well, I mean, there's some times where it fails or, you know, we
02:03:11
The problem with doing it once a week is say you're doing a tape backup and the power fails.
02:03:18
Now you've lost a whole week.
02:03:19
You know what I mean?
02:03:20
Like if you don't try to do it and not every workday week is what we're trying to do.
SPEAKER_09
02:03:28
I think every Monday there's something.
02:03:30
Every Monday there's a bigger batch.
02:03:32
That's like an update that comes through.
02:03:34
So again, that's that batch processing that's happening too.
SPEAKER_04
02:03:38
They are updating the code for Bright as well as we're trying to receive our data.
02:03:45
They're also updating because they're pushing out any little changes.
02:03:49
There's always security patches.
02:03:51
There's always like all those kinds of things that you have to push.
02:03:55
and it's a software service so right it's not running on our premises it's well we have a server here where some stuff's running but they're doing all the coding and everything in Tennessee they're in limestone Tennessee the um you had just said something that reminded me um
SPEAKER_09
02:04:18
Oh, those little updates that they're pushing out.
02:04:21
Sometimes they'll affect our side of things.
02:04:24
And those are when I'm putting in my help desk tickets and then it's taken two weeks.
02:04:29
We had something where our receipts started showing old balances that aren't collectible anymore.
02:04:36
And people were getting their receipts and they're like, what is this balance that I owe?
02:04:40
Well, it was an old balance that
02:04:42
Also, the system needs to be cleaned up, but it should have been written off as an uncollectible balance.
02:04:48
So they see this, and so it took them forever to figure out how to not show that.
SPEAKER_04
02:04:52
We are having a problem now.
02:04:53
We do ACH for payroll.
02:04:56
Everybody gets paid ACH.
02:04:58
as we're adding vendors onto ACH, what's happening when we run payrolls is pulling the whole file, not just, yeah.
SPEAKER_09
02:05:05
So it's more issues.
02:05:08
That's your limited functionality.
02:05:10
So we try to move forward and we implemented the ACH, the new ACH process so we can pay vendors by ACH.
02:05:17
You know, there's been, we've had some check fraud situations.
02:05:21
And so, you know, they came to me and said, can we start doing ACH?
02:05:25
So we've implemented that process, but,
02:05:27
We're trying to do something that's new technology now, but now we're limited by exactly what she's saying.
02:05:32
So it is something we need to look at.
SPEAKER_12
02:05:36
and again I think I've heard other things that have boxed you guys in as far as like even with payroll where you can only do it like once a month is that correct versus being able to the amount of because we're doing so much processing outside of it right Cooper and Dan here they we are we the shadow system of Excel
SPEAKER_07
02:05:58
Okay.
SPEAKER_04
02:05:58
It's the shadow system of what is doing more stuff outside the system than we could possibly do inside the system, even to create this budget.
02:06:08
Right.
02:06:08
You know, all of that is a hundred percent in Excel.
02:06:12
Um, and it's, it's painful and you guys make a change and that the potential for failure is, you know, like, and data integrity is not great.
02:06:26
And so, um,
02:06:28
We're not going to be in a situation where we're going to keep adding more and more staff as we're growing.
02:06:33
We have to be smart and use technology.
02:06:35
The technology absolutely exists.
02:06:38
And for many reasons, you know, being able to do for people to be able to go online and make payments, for example, and have that be an easy process and see the payment, you know, that's going to help with a lot of our security and fraud issues, you know.
02:06:52
We do have this integrated system, so we've got to worry about the backbone of the system and how all of us are integrating everything.
SPEAKER_12
02:07:03
So just for clarity for myself, the questions are how much this fiscal year and who's running the initial project for
SPEAKER_09
02:07:13
Well, it's really two projects.
02:07:16
So you have to look at it as the revenue system and then the system and what she's talking about when she's talking about that they're also exporting everything to do the budget.
02:07:24
When you go with an ERP system, they have all these modules.
02:07:28
So they're going to have an accounting module, they'll have a budget module, they'll probably have a procurement module.
02:07:33
and HR, they'll have a separate systems.
SPEAKER_12
02:07:37
You'll have the revenue one admin and revenue, right.
02:07:40
And then probably tie it together so that you'll have to have the energy to connect.
SPEAKER_09
02:07:44
Yeah.
02:07:45
Unless you have the same system, but usually, you know, uh, a revenue system isn't necessarily, they might have an add on finance, but that's kind of what, uh, what bright has been in it clearly, you know, hasn't worked.
02:07:56
I mean, it did it one time.
02:07:57
Um,
02:07:59
Now a lot of other localities where the treasurers and commissioners will have a certain payment revenue or revenue system and then somebody else has the ERP, like the county, the finance department, they'll have an ERP and there's already infrastructure there.
02:08:15
So if we determine who each of us is going with and we look out at the other localities and see if they have them, then that interface is already built.
02:08:23
And so then you don't have to create that.
02:08:25
You don't have to have someone to create that.
02:08:26
So that's another opportunity.
02:08:28
I'm not sure if Kathy's looking to build something from the ground up or if she's wanting to get another package.
02:08:35
I don't know.
02:08:36
We had briefly talked at my budget meeting, but we didn't.
02:08:39
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04
02:08:39
So I think the key is, though, we have to have a project management office to manage all the interfaces, all the comings and goings.
02:08:48
We have one IT guy, you know,
02:08:51
We should be duplicating effort in a lot of ways.
02:08:54
So that's that's the clearinghouse of how you do it.
02:08:58
And I dropped off some like we'd have to set up a steering committee, project management office.
02:09:04
That's all of us sitting on it so that we stay in sync because that's going to be very important because
02:09:11
The information not only is flowing between, you know, the Treasury and Commission of Revenue, it's flowing over to us in a major way as well.
02:09:18
So that's what the consultant to come in and get stand up some of these committees where we can, you know, it's not saying you can't do stuff.
02:09:28
It's like, what are you doing so we can make sure we're all working together?
02:09:32
Oh, you've got this resource.
02:09:33
We've got this resource.
02:09:34
Making sure we got the interfaces set up.
02:09:37
Kevin's going to be supporting all these efforts.
02:09:39
So we need to make sure
02:09:41
from a planning out, a project management planning out of resources that the same week something big is happening on this, it's not happening on the other.
02:09:50
And for all we know it may end up being one product, highly unlikely, but it could be.
02:09:55
There's endless possibilities and we have to sort through them.
02:10:00
There's a lot of, you know, even though there's endless possibilities, we already have like
02:10:06
It's narrowed down already to a few based on what other people are doing because local government and our functions are unique enough that there's products that won't work very well for us, particularly for schools.
02:10:20
You know, we have to really worry about what the school's needs and but we're all sharing the same general ledger.
02:10:27
and that's the issue.
02:10:28
Everything, that's the backbone of everything.
02:10:31
So we need to make sure that all the pieces that we have work together and we bring up the pieces that we need in the right order.
02:10:38
So the general ledger, because it's a backbone that has to be going first and there's a lot of decisions and everything that has to be made.
02:10:45
There needs to be someone coordinating all of that and we have to have those different committees and clearing houses.
SPEAKER_09
02:10:54
When you determine systems too, they'll have an implementation team and they'll have a project manager as well.
SPEAKER_14
02:11:01
All right, that sounds like interesting stuff.
02:11:07
Glad I don't have to use that every day.
02:11:10
Thank you all.
02:11:13
Thank you.
12. General budget discussion
SPEAKER_14
02:11:17
All right, guys and gals.
02:11:20
So,
02:11:21
Next meeting Thursday, we will have how many departments?
SPEAKER_04
02:11:26
Ms. Shafferty?
02:11:30
It's like seven, but some of them are going to be a lot shorter than others.
02:11:36
It'll be a lot shorter than tonight.
02:11:37
Let me put it that way.
SPEAKER_14
02:11:38
They're just going to be able to do a little more work next time.
SPEAKER_04
02:11:41
Pardon?
SPEAKER_14
02:11:41
We can do a little more work next time.
SPEAKER_04
02:11:43
Yeah.
02:11:43
Well, so for example, Adam will come in and talk about vehicle maintenance, you know, like, and how we're doing the basically focusing in on the replacement schedule.
02:11:56
And if you have any questions about the heavy lift that's being requested or whatever,
02:12:00
maybe 10 minutes, you know, depending on how many questions you have.
02:12:04
Others may be slightly longer, but even water and sewer, which might be one of the bigger ones, it won't take that long.
SPEAKER_14
02:12:13
My feeling is at the next meeting, we need to be prepared to go line by line.
02:12:19
We had discussions in our initial workshop, and I thought the board's consensus, minus Ms. Durra, was I'm talking about not schools.
02:12:28
Flat budget plus mandates plus a few key personnel plus limited capital improvements.
02:12:34
That's what we had discussed at our workshop where we kind of left that minus schools.
02:12:38
That's just our internal operation.
02:12:43
I appreciate all the work that went into all this, but that's kind of where my mind is going next time.
02:12:48
So I think if we go line by line in our own shop first, we can address each and every one of those things in the presentation tonight and see how it all stacks up and see if we can raise a little money within our own operation before we
02:13:05
move forward because the one thing that we do have to do on the 10th or the 12th is actually advertise a tax rate.
02:13:11
So I think it'd be best to see what we can do there right off the bat.
02:13:15
And if you all don't agree, let me know.
02:13:18
But that would be how I think we should go at it.
02:13:20
And now we've done this line by line thing before it moves pretty quick.
02:13:23
We'll just go through the book.
02:13:24
In the meantime, we can all think about questions that we might have along the way.
02:13:32
But I mean, that's
02:13:34
That's where I'm at with that.
02:13:37
Any other discussions on that?
SPEAKER_12
02:13:42
I'm not sure.
02:13:43
I'm talking about ours.
02:13:45
Yeah, our discussion.
02:13:47
OK, so line by line.
02:13:51
I did just want to point out that, like,
02:13:55
looking at the school's budget, looking at the county budget at this point, right?
02:14:01
The presentation that you gave, Kathy, has the school's budget set at the 2.8, correct?
02:14:10
So if, and I know this is just thinking about numbers and stuff, I think it would be at least an additional 4.1 cents, right?
02:14:18
So not being able to,
02:14:20
$0.04 on top of the $0.09 that you already asked for to balance this current budget if we were to just say yes across the board, right?
02:14:29
So we're looking at, what is that?
02:14:31
$0.14 or so.
02:14:33
$0.13, right?
02:14:36
Yeah.
02:14:36
Which puts us about, what, $0.82?
02:14:42
In regard to the school's budget, I understand the LCI completely.
SPEAKER_14
02:14:58
Frankly, the timing of lumping all those projects together in a year that the LCI has gone south is
02:15:05
It's probably the most draconian change I've ever seen in my time on the board, and I don't know how we would ever absorb that.
02:15:13
And I think that the other part of that is that our job is to make sure that we provide budget stability or revenue stability through our budget so we don't have the... And as you pointed out, this thing is going to be going on for a while.
02:15:27
This is a trend.
02:15:28
This is a long-term trend.
02:15:29
And frankly, I'm looking for a way to streamline that to where it's incremental.
02:15:35
I can't get my head wrapped around that tonight.
02:15:39
I just would like to make that statement.
02:15:43
I know the schools have a reserve, and I would like for Ms. Shafrick to get all the information together.
02:15:49
None of us know what that means, entails, what the rules are, what the board did, what the board didn't do.
02:15:55
I would like to have all that available for the next meeting.
02:15:58
Unless anybody has anything.
02:16:00
And Dr. Whitmarsh.
02:16:01
Absolutely.
02:16:01
Anybody can come to our workshops.
02:16:04
So that would be my request.
02:16:06
Other comments, questions?
SPEAKER_02
02:16:11
We definitely got a task today and that's for sports.
02:16:15
Yeah.
02:16:16
And a lot of it's due to the state, not in general.
SPEAKER_14
02:16:21
I think as time goes on, like all across the board, the trend is like worse than it's ever been as far as pushing everything down to the locality.
02:16:32
which my biggest pet peeve on that is that income tax at the state is relative to what you make.
02:16:37
Our tax on your real estate is relative to what your worth is, which might not necessarily reflect what's in your pocket.
02:16:45
And that's the injustice of the state's constant attack on us, in my opinion.
02:16:52
We fought this for years.
02:16:53
The last time I was on the board, we fought it too, but it wasn't so bad.
02:16:56
I mean, it wasn't like the death row every time it happened.
02:16:59
It was incremental.
SPEAKER_12
02:17:01
And I do want to just be cautious as we work through all this too.
02:17:06
I think the budget calls for some use of some debt vehicles, right, for capital improvements, for purchasing things and stuff like that.
02:17:14
And I don't want to just be kicking the road, right, as far as, you know, making us then have to look at a higher tax increase in the future year to kind of pay for something that we did today.
SPEAKER_14
02:17:25
I guess that's the biggest concern, right?
02:17:27
Because if we if we go for the enchilada now,
02:17:31
We still have a huge water project that we're doing that what could go wrong, right?
02:17:37
And then any other emergency that comes down the pike with our operations in the county, we could be undoing everything that we've worked really hard to do the last two years.
02:17:48
And it's very interesting.
02:17:52
The last thing I'll plug on that is having a strategic long-term vision is also an important thing this year
SPEAKER_12
02:18:22
with the planning and zoning, redoing the comp plan, and so we need to make sure that our priorities coming from the constituents feed back into how we're funding the policies for the...
SPEAKER_14
02:18:35
So, Mr. Friedel will be presenting the CIP overlay?
02:18:40
soon.
02:18:42
So we can use that.
02:18:43
I mean, that's obviously, we have to actually adopt it.
02:18:45
The planning commission has already dealt with it, but that's obviously huge for that long-term planning.
02:18:50
And it also allows us to accept proffers, right?
02:18:53
It allows us to, you know, Terry can do the grant writing on any of those.
02:18:57
Exactly.
02:18:57
But they've got to be on the plan, even if it's crazy and out 40 years, you cannot accept any money to do that.
02:19:03
It's got to be out that far.
02:19:06
Can we look into this Roanoke County thing?
SPEAKER_04
02:19:12
Yes.
SPEAKER_14
02:19:14
It's very interesting.
02:19:15
I read just a little bit of it.
02:19:17
Basically the departments get the money and the departments pay the people but it's $500 so it's under a threshold.
02:19:24
which would be very fair compared to the way we're doing it now and probably cheaper to actually implement where you would just cut a check and then they would have to establish the criteria and prove to us that criteria was met.
02:19:36
So can we just have the legal review of that as it bolts into all this?
SPEAKER_12
02:19:43
I did have a question.
02:19:43
The security officers for the schools, does that fall under the school budget or for the sheriffs?
02:19:48
On the sheriff's budget.
SPEAKER_14
02:19:53
Any other comments, questions?
02:19:56
We good with that plan of attack?
02:19:59
I'm okay with it.
02:20:00
Okay.
02:20:01
Excellent.
SPEAKER_12
02:20:02
You need a motion.
13. Adjourn Workshop
SPEAKER_12
02:20:03
I need a motion.
02:20:06
I guess I motion to adjourn the workshop.
SPEAKER_14
02:20:09
Okay, second.
02:20:10
Okay, we have a motion and a second to adjourn the workshop.
02:20:12
Roll call vote.
02:20:13
Mr. Lamb.
02:20:14
Aye.
02:20:14
Mr. Hartung.
02:20:15
Aye.
02:20:15
Mr. Goolsbee.
02:20:16
Aye.
02:20:16
Ms. Durer.
02:20:17
Aye.
02:20:17
And the chair votes aye.
02:20:19
Thank you all very much.
02:20:20
A lot of work everybody's doing.
02:20:28
Pastor Dixie, you can get through there.