This was the scene at the CIP public meeting last night (thanks to Ian for the panoramic shot).  It's kind of a wierd perspective as I'm all the way over at the left in the picture but actually standing against the back wall – opposite of the stage and screen.  All told there were probably 50 citizens there who were not affialliated with any city institution: just folks.  There were an equal number of folks who were with the schools and/or the city.  Some of those school/city employees are citizens as well. I saw no media whatsoever.

So, my first impression of the "Joint CIP Process" is that it's moving along.  The city and school staff members are meeting weekly to come up with numbers, plans and priorities.  The City CIP is pretty well developed and defined.  I do get heartburn when staff parachute a $40 million dollar "Public Safety Building" into the budget with no warning at all – that doesn't strike me as planning – but the CIP is very well structured.  The schools CIP is not as well structured so we engaged in this process in order that everyone will understand what our collective needs are.  All of this money is really coming out of the same pot so it's best to plan this way.

Up to this point the process has really been inside of City Hall – staff meetings and Council briefings.  We have Public Hearings every year about the CIP but nobody ever comes so nobody knows what is in the CIP.  This is evidenced by the hullabloo we had over the Winter's Branch trail extension which has been routinely approved by Council (usually unanimously) for about the last dozen years.  This being the case, seeing all of this stuff dragged out into public in a very open and honest fashion is a bit disconcerting.  I know that it's an odd thing to say – it's the public's business so it shouldn't be disconcerting – but over the past 6 years the public has been so rarely involved (despite published notices, public hearings and stories in the media)  that when you do finally get a handful of citizens to show it feels a bit strange.  A bit like having your neighbors look in your trash can and then curiously eyeball your house with an arched eyebrow.  Again that seems a bit odd but I make no apologies for how it seems to me.  I've been hip-deep in it for 6 years now.

I thought the meeting went well – the staff presentations were well put together and the Superintendant did an acceptable job presenting her information.  I'll admit I was a bit confused by some of her information but it's only because I'm less familiar with their needs and estimates than I am the City ones.  The only part I thought was missing were some estimated costs for the big-ticket items.  After all, it's easy to support building a firing range, schools and public safety building until you get the estimate: $90 million for all three!!! 

So, even though I was a bit uncomfortable at first, I'm glad that we're having these meetings.  The citizens of Manassas have to pay for this stuff so they need to understand the requirements and then support it or not.  Manassas has significant needs in facilities and government.  An understanding of the costs will be important so that the citizens understand the magnitude of the requirements and that simply trimming this program or that program is not likely to save sufficient revenue to pay for these programs and buildings.  You could, for instance, close the museum, cut all funding to arts and non-profits and it wouldn't pay for more than 20% of any of these projects.  Frankly, I'm of the opinion that the government in Manassas is about as small as it can realistically get.  Some might take issue with that but the practical effect of having fewer staff is that the remaining folks end up doing their assigned duties less and less as they cover other functions.  You can still find this in our current government structure.  Some might say that this is great!  It shows our flexibility and for my part, I do agree that we're a small government and we need to be flexible.  However, from a management point of view I need to be confident that if we hire 4 zoning/building inspectors (for example) we are going to get that level of effort in the intended department, not covering something else. 

We need to be honest with ourselves when it comes to how we're going to pay for this stuff.  Does that mean the only way to get some of these new facilities is a tax increase?  No (and at the republican convention this winter it was made clear that the Republicans in Manassas will not support tax increases and will punish those who even consider them).  This being the case, we're going to need phase these projects over a pretty long term to take advantage of retireing debt service and we'll need major help from the economy.  Both of those are pretty normal for Capital projects but it needs to be understood that you won't see progress on most of these projects anytime soon.  We may also have to examine our existing budget for cuts in order to save enough money to pay for these projects – if we're to do them sooner than later.

This is going to be difficult!