One of the by-products of the Council raising the tax rate was that the school board had more money than their budget called for.  This was brought up pretty late in the budget process and the Council voted to stick the money into the School Board’s rainy day fund.  As it turns out, they are very unhappy with this and the reason is that they have to come back to the Council to get approval if they want to spend that money.  When we voted to do this, I really didn’t see it as all that problematic.  However, the School Board sees this as an affront to their autonomy and they are mad about it.

Here are my thoughts on this:  I know that next year is going to be a very difficult budget year.  Projections indicate that it will be far more difficult than this years.  As it stands right now, I know that the schools have an extra $800k stashed in their rainy day fund and it isn’t going anywhere unless the Council approves it.  That knowledge will factor into my decision process all year long because, in the back of my mind, I know there is $800k in the bank for the schools.  It would be bad indeed if I counted on that money all year long and it was gone.  However, what the WaPo failed to mention is that, in thinking about this, I am willing to meet my School Board peers half way:  I’d be willing to put their money back into an account they can access as long as they let us know when they spend it.  The Council wouldn’t have veto power over the funds but we would know what was going on and this could help us make better decisions throughout the year.  I think this is a pretty reasonable compromise so we’ll see what happens.  Moving that much money will require a public hearing so it isn’t something that can be accomplished in short order.

Sorry about the lack of posts.  I’ve been busy trying to earn a living since the budget death march is over.  You can only ignore your real life for so long before all of the accumulated stuff unloads like an avalanche.  As it turns out, that is more or less what happened.  In any event, things at City Hall seem to be moving along nicely.  The report on the zoning enforcement activities is due in a few weeks and the council will have the chance to review our staffing levels with that data in hand.  I hope we can bring that to a quick resolution and provide whatever resources are necessary.  If they need staff we will have to dig deep but dig we will.

The VCDL people have been to speak to City Council twice now and I’m still mulling over that situation. I see where they are coming from as I’m a big bill of rights guy but I also believe that we’ve taken appropriate action in response to their complaint – we’ve apologized for the incident, the Chief has implemented training on the law and disciplinary action was taken.  There were calls from those that spoke at City Hall to terminate the Chief but I don’t support that.  I believe the Chief to be a careful, professional officer who takes this business seriously and he’s given me no reason to think otherwise.  We’ll see what happens.