C’est Fini

Posted on May 21, 2013 by andy

The budget is concluded.  The final compromise, detailed earlier, is what passed.  If you supported the CIP, et.al., you've likely moved on to the next thing, like making dinner.  If you opposed the plan, you're probably marking the calendar and plotting the political demise of those that supported the CIP and budget plan.  Those in the middle who supported the project nearest you but considered the balance of the CIP a luxury, well you're mad too…:)  It seems as though everyone was equally angry so it was probably the right deal.  The final two cent cut might leave us a bit of a hole to fill next year but we'll have to wait and see.

My hat is off to those citizens who attended some of the budget meetings.  I listen to everyone but the opinion of someone who has bothered to educate themselves on the budget and the process is especially interesting.  I chatted with many of you at length and, even if we didn't agree, I think we understood each other and there's a certain amount of respect developed.  It's also cool to think that some of those folks will get involved either as a volunteer or to run for office!

I'd also like to thank all of those who took the time to email or call.  Especially those who disagreed.  That feedback is important and it does make a difference.  Without feedback that final 2 cent cut doesn't happen.  While email is not quite the level of committee as dragging yourself to a meeting, it really does matter.  Especially now that we don't have a local newspaper.  For whatever it's worth, I think the feedback I received both via email, phone and public meetings was slightly in favor of the budget/cip.  It isn't black and white as some of the feedback supported this or that project but maybe not the whole thing.

Those of you who elected to insult Council members (or other members of the public) either at public hearings or via email, I'm at a loss as to what your strategy was.  I am President of an IT company, maybe you're a stay at home mom, a lawyer or a government employee but we are all just people.  Few people respond positively to insult.  Having a difference of opinion is fine but we should be able to maintain civility.

In any event, what's done is done and we're off to start building and fixing things.  I'm excited as I believe this will be the start of a new development/redevelopment cycle for Manassas.  We have the opportunity to pick a new City Manager soon and D-Mag is working hard on the schools side to get things squared away.  For the Council, I suspect the committees will be very busy this summer and we'll likely start the fall/late summer off with several days of interviews for the Manager position.  I'm also hopeful that the Central Office is torn down July first…:)  In the end, this is a CIP and budget that's all about growth and investment.  It's what Manassas needs.

Posted in City Council | 5 Comments

Where we are

Posted on May 10, 2013 by andy

There appears to be some confusion about where we our in our budgeting process so let me lay it all out.  In a "normal" year the Council would have about 15 meetings to go over the budget.  During these meetings, Council members can place items they have questions about or oppose on the "open items list".  This list also includes all additions to the budget as well as all tax rates and transfer to the schools.  This list is considered in what is usually the penultimate budget meeting called "mark up".  Whatever comes out of mark up is usually presented as the Council's budget at a public hearing.  The public hearing is followed by a budget work session, usually short, to consider public input.  Whatever comes out of that meeting is presented at "First reading" and is voted on.  This followed by "second reading" which is normally a formality.  So, it looks like this:

5-year forecast & guidance to staff (fall of previous year)
City Manager presents his budget
Public hearing (citizen's time too) on Manager's budget
15-ish budget meetings to review budget
Mark Up
Finance Chair normally presents Council budget
Public Hearing on Council budget
budget work session to consider
First reading
Second reading

So, the vote at the budget work session after the public hearing to forward the Council's budget to first reading was 4-2.  However, at the conclusion of this "final" work session, a couple of Council Members asked that members submit ideas for cutting the budget and requested an additional meeting.  This is most unusual (not bad, just unusual) as the work session after the public hearing is always the final budget meeting.

A few days later, the Mayor did call that meeting and from that meeting a compromise was reached that reduced the budget a further 2 cents on the operating side.  The result of that action was a ~$450,000 reduction in school spending (but they're still getting $1.3 million more than last year).  The real reduction to the schools is about ~$200k as they are getting about $250k more than they had budgeted.  The school folks were not pleased with this development but I have confidence that they will make it work.

On the City side, we deferred our economic development department for 6 months and eliminated one position from the City staff.  The deferral will happen without much fuss: we won't be hiring anyone for Economic Development until after we have a new Manager and that ain't happening until September, I would expect.  

The vote on this compromise was 4-2 with Mssrs. Aveni and Lovejoy voting no.  These actions bring the tax increase down to just over 7%.  That's still a lot but better than it was.  This compromise is what will be brought forth on Monday night for First Reading.  

My reflection on all of this is that the city would have been better served if Council would have provided guidance to staff on CIP spending in the five year forecast instead of just putting in $0. We told staff to prepare a CIP plan that fit their best judgement.  Some were surprised by the scope of the plan that emerged.  I'm not sure why.  Of course, I was in the minority on that vote so maybe I should re-examine my dissent….:)  In any event, the only problem that we might have (well, not the only one) is that by cutting the budget a bit we may have created a bit of a hole to be filled next year when we have to pay for the full year of those economic development staffers.  I believe that if the economy continues on its current modest path, we'll be fine.  If it doesn't, we'll have to take action.  That's the way it goes.

 

Posted in City Council | 7 Comments

Budget Status

Posted on April 15, 2013 by andy

 I've had a couple of questions about the budget and where we are with it.  Since we don't have a local paper anymore it seems as though this stuff has fallen through the cracks.  This article over at insidenova.com is pretty much the extent of the coverage but it does contain some errors.

Where we are is as follows:  The Council has completed it's budget creation/modification process.  That's about 15 meetings followed by a mark up session.  "Mark Up" is meeting where all of the "Open items" are considered.  The open items list consists of a couple of things: anything that is new in this budget, any items in the budget placed on the open items list by a Council member and all of the tax rates are also automatically on open items.  Each of the items on the list gets a roll call vote.  This vote is a "straw vote" and not binding but it is unusual for someone to change their vote.  As a practical matter it's pretty late in the game and you either support it or you don't.

This years Mark Up meeting went pretty smoothly considering the City Manager is leaving, our CFO is gone and our budget analyst had a family emergency at the last minute and couldn't make the meeting!  It wasn't a huge deal though as Council members are very familiar with the budget and, as others have pointed out, I have awesome math skills.  The main point of contention this year was the CIP.  In summary, we bounced the public safety building and one of the fire stations into future years.  We also eliminated several small neighborhood projects.  They're nice to have but we need to spend on money on higher priority projects.  As for the rest of the budget proposal, most of it was approved as well: all of the additions to City staff, most notably the creation of an Economic Development department, went through.  There was a fair amount of debate on the Fire/Rescue front on the increases to that fund.  I don't think that anyone is unhappy with the functioning of the Fire/Rescue system but it's been growing by leaps and bounds so I belive what you're seeing is a desire that the growth in that fund settle down some.  A small merit raise was also approved.

As for the tax rates, the Council voted unanimously to leave the tax rate at its current level.  We also voted unanimously to add 6.2 cents onto the existing rate for the CIP.  This was the front-loading strategy that raises more money up front which allows the City to combine bond funds with our capital cash on-hand to reduce the tax increase.  We can do this as we can avoid dedicating operating cash to debt service long enough that some existing debt will be paid off and we can use that free cash to help pay the bonds.  In the end it's finance, not math, and it saves our citizens money.  Now, if you opposed the CIP plan in its entirety, that probably doesn't mollify you but that's the way it went.

The transfer to the schools for both operating and capital funds was also approved unanimously.

The next step will be a public hearing a week from today.  After that, the Council will have a work session which will be followed by the public votes (at a regular Council meeting) on the budget. 

Posted in City Stuff | 6 Comments

Amtrak

Posted on April 11, 2013 by andy

Went on my first Amtrak ride today (I'm actually on the train as I write this).  I've been on the Metro plenty, both here and in other cities and I've even been on Street cars before in NoLa and San Francisco but never a train.  It's an interesting experience.  We're traveling on business and decided to get "Business Class" seats.  They were like $20 more so it seemed reasonable.

First, the good stuff.  It's amazing to me that I can go to the little train depot up the street and take a train all the way up the East coast.  I packed my stuff into a carry-on bag, drove my car up to my office and dragged my carry-on the two blocks to the train station.  Two blocks is a shorter drag than doing the airport thing, that's for sure.  I showed up about 20 minutes early and away I went.  Contrast that to a flight out of Dulles where I'd need to lave my house some 3.5 hours in advance just to make sure I'd catch the flight.  Cost-wise I haven't doped it all out but it appears our tickets were cheaper than flying.  I'm not sure if that has more to do with the days we traveled or what.  Not sure I care all that much as there is likely adjustable pricing on both sides based on days/times, etc, etc.  I'm sure you can find a conspiracy site on the internet to explain it all if you look hard enough.

The other thing that is just all that and a ball of wax is the amount of space available.  Sarah and I bagged our "Biz class" seats and stayed in the Cafe car the whole time.  It's essentially the same as sitting at a booth in a fast-food restaurant.  Just a world different than flying on an airplane where standing up to stretch your legs necessarily involves having your butt in someone's face.  We brought a little lunch bag with a couple of sandwiches and some snacks.  It just wasn't a big deal at all.  Also, for our train there was no checked baggage but there was plenty of space above the seats.  You just stuck your bags up there and away you went.  No drama.

One last good thing: there is Dogfish Head beer on those trains and the food ain't bad.  A beautiful thing.

On to strange things: the train will, from time to time just slow to a crawl.  I suppose the tracks must be screwed up but really?  That kind of stuff has just got to get fixed and it's a long-term problem but if we want transit options….

Now, the lousy things.  These may not, at first blush, seem like much but little things add up to difference-makers:  When you go to get on the train, nobody really helps very much.  As I indicated, we bought "Business Class" tickets and upon boarding the train showed our tickets to the conductor.  We asked "where should we sit"?  He indicated, "turn right and sit anywhere".  Now technically he was correct.  However, the "Business Class" seats were 4 cars up.  That's a long way in train distance and we gave up on those seats when we found the Cafe car.  As I indicated, I was over the moon with the cafe car but others might not be.  If you're going to sell a product that is differentiated by price, your employees have got to be able to support it.  After all, when it comes to transportation, the experience that people are benchmarking you on are the airlines.  Do you think for a second that if you approached a gate with a first-class ticket and showed it to a Flight Attendant that they would glance at it and say "turn right and sit anywhere"?  No, of course not.  It's not a big deal for me but to some it will be.  I will add, however, that overall the Amtrak staff are very friendly and helpful.

As we sat in the cafe car, it became clear that this car is the defacto office for the conductors.  That's fine, everyone needs a place to hang their hat but the conductors sit in the car with the radio's blaring about half the time.  That's a bit more of a big deal to me.  It isn't as though anyone is sleeping in the cafe car but it is very distracting.  It is also loud enough that you can hear it through headphones.  I know that those earphones that plug into the radio don't cost much.

One final bad thing.  Much of the infrastructure you see from the train is a wreck.  The platforms in Union Station look like they've just absorbed a proper shelling and been patched with asphalt.  The columns for the platforms are probably original wrought iron with 20 layers of paint and electrical cable zip-tied to them.  Baltimore is the same way.  Much of the masonry and platforms look to be original.  And by original I mean steel with those big rivets in it and old-school stone masonry or massive brick structures.  If you think the highways are in bad shape, take a look at the rails.  To be fair to my friends in the Railroads, the infrastructure between the cities seems ok so I'm guessing maintaining that stuff in an urban environ is a real bear.  Also, let's face it, they don't normally build million dollar houses right next to the railroad so it isn't a real attractive place to look at. 

Now, you might be asking yourself if I've done any other research to base all of this on.  The answer is this: you've got to be kidding me.  I've been sitting on this train for 3 hours, walked up and down the aisle a few times, got off to look around at Union Station and that's the extent of my "research".  It's really more like "observation" than actual research.  I'm not claiming this is peer-reviewed inquiry but I'm a customer and that's good enough!

At the end of the day the most important question, I suppose, is would I ride the train again?  The answer, for a regional train, is hell yes….as long as I can sit in the cafe car.  I'm not so sure about a 2-3 day train ride.  I think I'd hop a flight for NoLa or points west well before I'd sit on a train for a couple of days.  I've only been on this thing a couple of hours and the sameness of the railroad right of way in between the cities is pretty dull.  Maybe a train through the Rockies…. 

On our return leg, we waited in Penn station for an hour or so.  People often ask "what's happened to all of the regular people?"  I found them in the train station.  It isn't anything like an airport.  Overall, I dig it.

Posted in Andy's Stuff, Information Only | 7 Comments

Bike Trails, Past and Present

Posted on April 8, 2013 by andy

Over the past couple of years, Manassas has seen an increasing number of folks riding bicycles.  I see folks riding cruiser bikes around Old Town and, when the weather is nice, I see a lot of bikes locked up at the train station in Old Town.  We would see more but the bike racks at the station are absolute crap so I'm sure many just skip it.  I know that I wouldn't lock up a nice bike to that rack.  I see Road Cyclists in full kit blasting along Hastings and there's also a short mountain bike trail near the Airport.  I have also seen TWO (2) actual hipsters in Old Town.  That is, depending on your point of view, progress or a sign of an impending apocolypse.  That subculture has been alternately heralded as harbindgers of change or a swarm of gentrifying locusts in towns where there is a decent population.  For my part, I tend to view it as progress.  All places need change agents, even if they do wear tweed and ride fixed-gear bikes.

We've also seen a minimal amount of bike specific infrastructure added.  It's mainly paint used for "sharrows" and paint is cheap!  The mountain bike trail out near the airport was built with all-volunteer labor.  We've seen some shared use improvments in the form of increased signalization of street crossings but pedestrians and bikes use those alike.  Some decry these improvements but in a rapidly urbanizing area with a lower-middle income population improvements like these are very important.  Many residents of GTS and Point of Woods depend on bikes to get around.  Many others use bikes as a very efficient means of transport just because they want to.  In an area like ours, the more options we give people to diversify from strictly automobiles, the better.

Over the past couple of years there has been a lot of grief over the Winter's Branch trail extension.  That trail has been in the CIP for about 10 years.  Last year the City held a citizen involvement meeting that was among the oddest public meetings I've ever been to.  Many residents just flat-out opposed the trail.  They felt it gave those with bad intent easy access to their neighborhood.  Others there seemed to oppose the bike trail but were most upset with the status of the drainage and electrical system in their neck of the woods.  Having ridden the proposed trail extension many times (it's easily passable in its current form) I had a hard time not 

agreeing with the citizens….but also with the City.  A capital project over there would sure help clean-up that whole mess.  However, the residents just didn't want it.  So, the City formed a study group with the residents and they came up with a different proposal:  take an existing CIP project – the Prince William Street rebuild project and change that project somewhat to accomodate bike lanes right on the road.  This project would be combined with several long-overdue electrical, sewer and water projects to help straighten out the infrastructure situation over there.

For my part, I'm very happy with the outcome.  We gain a much improved pedestrian/bike/car connection from Wellington to Old Town and those other projects will help the property-owners over there with many long-standing problems.  At the CIP markup meeting the Council voted to remove Winters Branch from the CIP.  I made that motion and the vote was unanimous.  It's unfortunate that the Winters Branch stream area will remain a mess and it's still there for those with bad intent but this compromise provides better results for a far larger group of citizens and it ties in other electrical, water and drainage projects so it is a far better outcome!  

In addition, we've had several of the residents and members of the working group speak in support of the project so I'm happy to support it.  Oh, and one last thing: kudos to our Public Works staff for applying for and receiving 50% funding from the state to support this project!!!!

 

Posted in Bikes, Information Only | 1 Comment